Friday 2 November 2018

First shale gas produced at Cuadrilla’s Lancashire site

First shale gas produced at Cuadrilla’s Lancashire site

Cuadrilla has produced the first shale gas from its fracking site in Lancashire.

The company described the news as “significant and indicative of the potential of the shale”.

It comes after Cuadrilla halted operations for 18 hours at the Preston New Road site following a minor tremor last week, during which seismicity levels were measured.

Chief Executive Francis Egan said: “The volumes of gas returning to surface at this stage are small. However, considering that we are only at the very start of fracturing operations and given operating constrains, have not yet been able to inject as much sand into the shale as we had planned, this is a good early indication of the gas potential that we have long talked about.”

He added the site is being monitored at “unprecedented level” and the initial gas flow “is by no means the end of the story”.

Cuadrilla plans to fully test flow rates from the first two exploration wells towards the end of 2018 and into the New Year following the completion of hydraulic fracturing operations which started in mid-October.

Written by

Bruna Pinhoni

Trending Articles