UK shale far more complex than US
1 Oct 2014
Geologists yesterday warned that extraction of UK shale gas would require far more engineering expertise due to the complex rock formations that it is held in.
Speaking at the European Shale Gas and Oil Summit (ESGOS) in London, the British Geological Survey’s (BGS) team leader for unconventional oil and gas, Nick Riley said Britain was “blessed” with significant shale resources.
“[But] our geology is much more complicated than the US,” he said.
“It’s not a simple layer cake, as is the case in the US.”
UK shale resources will need a lot more work
Petrafiz director Andrew Foulds
Riley worked on the BGS’ study for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) on the Bowland shale, published last summer. The report concluded that while the shale gas basins were in many places thicker than those found in the US, they were often much deeper and lying in far more complex geology.
Andrew Foulds, director of unconventional oil & gas consultancy Petrafiz, has worked in the US shale industry for the past eight years and said that UK shale was likely to see far higher production costs.
“The best shale is in the US,” said Foulds, also speaking at ESGOS yesterday.
“The shale resources there are phenomenal. They are not here. They will need a lot more work.”
However, the nature of the UK shale deposits could be good news for those concerned about the visual impact drilling rigs on the countryside, said Riley.
“If you have a thick shale pool, the surface development could be a lot less,” said Riley, explaining that the thick concentrated basins might require just one well pad with multiple horizontal wells, rather than the shallow continuous “layer cake” with multiple pads that typically characterises most of the US shale resource and its development.
DLA Piper partner Sandy Telfer agreed, pointing out that the difference in land ownership laws in the US and UK also meant multiple wells were highly unlikely.
“In the US you can only drill up to the boundary of the land belonging to the landowners you have paid,” said Telfer.
“That limits horizontal drilling and has led to a lot of uneconomic vertical wells being drilled.”
Speaking at ESGOS on Monday, DECC Office of Unconventional Gas and Oil deputy head James Clarke confirmed that following the closing of a consultation, the government was pressing ahead with its plans to streamline the planning process by only consulting landowners if there is any drilling activity less than 300m from the surface.
“We feel this is still the right line to take,” said Clarke.
“There’s still a lot or Parliamentary process to go through, but UK government is pressing ahead and if progressed this will come into effect in March next year.”
