UK fracking company adds leak monitoring equipment
20 Jan 2012
Cambridge, UK – Cuadrilla Resources of Lichfield, UK, recently announced the presence of significant shale gas resources in Lancashire. If extracted on a commercial scale, domestically produced natural gas could increase the UK’s energy security.
As part of its exploration effort, Cuadrilla has commissioned GasClam to monitor background gas concentrations prior to operations, with the monitoring device left in the ground to measure, record and transmit gas concentrations throughout Cuadrilla’s operations.
Since operations began in 2010, Cuadrilla has put safety measures in place to ensure the surrounding environment and communities are not affected by its exploration activities.
The monitoring device will collect background gas levels and compare them between before, during and after our operations, according to Mark Miller, CEO of Cuadrilla.
“Continuing with our open and transparent communications with the community, we will make this data available to the public and include this on the Cuadrilla website,” said Miller.
GasClam was developed by Salamander, a University of Manchester spin out company and is a previous winner of the North West Innovation Environment Technology prize and is a local solution to the needs of a global industry.
Dr Pete Morris, from Ion Science, the global distributor of the technology, said: “As gas occurs naturally from a range of sources, GasClam will provide reliable information to Cuadrilla and the surrounding community to show the level of gas and its origin.”
1. Cuadrilla have just installed a network of 21 GasClams to monitor their current exploration sites and are the world’s first company to use it as part automated early warning system. If the instrument detects an increase in gas concentrations an engineer will be immediately alerted allowing rapid response. As the data resides on the internet it will be possible to send it to the Cuadrilla website where local communities could view it. Following successful exploration the monitoring network will be expanded to maintain high levels of confidence.
2. The use of the instrument in the North West is likely to see other areas and countries adopting this approach. This will be another example of Cuadrilla’s commitment to using the best available technology and not only complying with best practice, but also driving it.
