Channel 4 News: Shale gas: A new energy source for Britain?

Shale gas: A new energy source for Britain?

Featuring the UK's first shale gas well near Blackpool, Lancashire. Drilling 10 000 feet below the surface in rocks called the Bowland Shale, which extends from the Craven Fault to the Irish Sea.
(Source: Channel 4 News).

More information on the above news report/press release by Cuadrilla as featured on Channel 4 News, taken from The Guardian, 25th July 2010:

In an interview with Channel 4 News, to be screened shortly, Chris Cornelius, the founder of Cuadrilla, said that in future shale gas could reduce the need for some imports into Britain as North Sea supplies run down.

"It's very early days," he said. "It will take a lot of exploration and a lot of effort by small companies like us, and larger companies as well, but ultimately we are hopeful that we would find certain deposits here that would add to the net reserves of the UK."

The Financial Times recently claimed that shale gas would "change the world". The American finds have scuppered the plans of Russia and other countries to start exporting gas to the energy-hungry US.

Any kind of gas is a relatively carbon-friendly alternative to oil, and countries around the world are keen to find their own supplies that will help to limit climate change while also providing energy security.

But shale gas comes with its own environmental problems. The gas is reached by drilling wells deep into rock formations, which are then "fractured" or broken up with the aid of water and heavy chemicals, to release tiny pockets of trapped gas.

The US Congress is currently investigating the potential threat posed by these substances to local water supplies but the big oil companies have no doubt that shale gas is the new oil rush.

Royal Dutch Shell has just bought a shale gas expert, East Resources, for $4.7bn (£3bn), while Shell has started to drill for shale gas in Sweden, and ConocoPhillips is drilling in Poland.

There have been no big discoveries yet in Europe but Cuadrilla is confident that it can make a strike in Britain. The company is backed by some of the most canny financial players in the world: the Carlyle Group, the private equity firm at which the former British prime minister Sir John Major used to have a seat on the board, and Riverstone Holdings, where Browne is UK managing director.

Cornelius told Channel 4 that his company had taken care to involve the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and other agencies to ensure that there would be no major problems attached to the drilling process.

"There are certain cases in the US where certain operators have been documented as having some issues, and they do exist. But I think we have done everything here working with the HSE and the Environment Agency in the UK to ensure that doesn't happen on Cuadrilla's location," he said.