Monday
Jun032013
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Cheshire gas
Jun 3, 2013 Energy: gas Gas prospector IGas has announced that there could be huge quantities of shale gas in the area it has been licensed to explore (story here).
The company's licences cover an area of 300 sq miles across Cheshire.
It had previously said it had about nine trillion cubic feet of shale gas. It now estimates that the volume of "gas initially in place" could range from 15.1 trillion cubic feet to 172.3 trillion cubic feet - nearly 20 times more.
To put that in perspective, UK demand is currently about 3TCF per annum, so we are talking about a lot of gas. Of course, there's the question of how much is extractable, but this is still very good news.
Reader Comments (29)
Depressingly however, the BBC feels it necessary to add the "frighteners" about "causing earthquakes" and "poluting the water table". Still, all in all rather good news. Not that it will make gass prices cheaper though, the government's tax regime will see to that.
But it will not and can not be economic to extract.
Those with degrees in PPE will ensure that.
This will not please Ed Davey who is intending to have a “near carbon-free power sector” by 2030:
www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/10095188/Ed-Davey-attacks-papers-who-report-destructive-climate-sceptics.html
He's an Oxford PPE.
What is Black Shale? Looking at the map the BBC have produced it would seem that the onshore licences are not over the large swathes of Black Shale deposits (a massive area around Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, etc) - does it not have shale gas in it? And if so, why publish the map showing Black Shale?
Why won't prices for the gas come down? Is it because it is expensive to extract, or because green taxes will be levied? If the latter, then surely FOE ought to be appeased as they will still be able to promote renewable energy (such as wood chip burning....../sarc).
On another side issue, although this may be a matter of law or Parliamentary rules, I am having a small problem understanding the difference between Mercer and Yeo. At least Mercer has fallen (almost) on his sword. Can't say I've noticed Yeo doing the same, but perhaps he might once he's emptied the trough.
Thought it was 115 to 170 trillion cubic feet. The company has already been doing drilling to estimate gas in place so it is unlikely that there would be so wide a range.
The BBC interview with the IGas man stated that earthquakes were definitely caused by fracking. This is a LIE since even the BGS stated after their investigations that fracking COULD cause minor tremors of up to R2.4. This is the same as a large truck passing you at 50MPH 100ft away. Hardly house shattering or even earth moving.
AS a note-- most minor earthquakes are caused by movement on unknown faults.
With all those salt mines that have been operating in Cheshire for hundreds of years, what's a few more minor earth tremors? And one thing is certain: being close to Manchester, the Cheshire Gap is not renowned for a shortage of available water supplies.
@John Marshall - 'The BBC interview with the IGas man stated that earthquakes were definitely caused by fracking. This is a LIE since even the BGS stated after their investigations that fracking COULD cause minor tremors of up to R2.4.'
I was working in the gas industry when natural gas was discovered beneath the North Sea. The environmentalists of the time were apoplectic with their warnings of the dire consequences of drilling and extraction.
Some even went so far as to insist that extracting the gas from its pockets in the sea bed would actually cause the sea bed to collapse and drain the North Sea!
In those days the BBC was nowhere near as biased as today so the utterings of the Eco Warriors were, by and large, ignored.
Once upon a time our government would have treated such news as good news.
Need a better map. If it's in Cheshire, Greenpeace will say it's underneath Alderly Edge, even if it is under Runcorn.
Yertizz,
You must be thinking of the famous Bob Roberts monologue, "the Oily Rig" - very funny:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Oily-Rig-Recitation/dp/B003PW4CY0
The US version of HIGNFY on fracking: http://youtu.be/BLvOHsQBcSg
John in France - I have now, thanks
And ZT - Miles McInnes, the Archetypal American Fruitcake.
Ed Davey just spoke in favour of shale gas - he mentioned it in his speech here:
In the panel discussion afterwards, he said that if the UK didn't exploit shale gas then it would be importing gas from abroad instead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9CfUm0QeOk
Small question for the British Geological Survey Fracking is currently suspended in the UK How many Earthquakes were there in the UK last year and this year .
@Richard Betts
Do you think the lights are at last coming on in Davey's head and how long will it take him to act before the lights (and everything else) start to go out for the rest of us?
"Small question for the British Geological Survey ..."
http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/earthquakes/recent_uk_events.html
The BGS report lots ...
Richard Betts,
It's at last getting through to the fruitcakes (maybe), that the insane policy of building useless wind turbines to combat the mythical global warming, will need 100% backup from despatchable gas-fired power stations. But as anyone with any sense can deduce, you're far better off just building the gas-fired power stations.
Anyone else get upset about framing such as Davey's
Back when coal did produce lots of real air pollution, "dirty" was apt. But now the term is being trundled out to mean "higher CO2 intensity" and used deliberately to evoke the negative connotations of its former usage.Lies, damn lies, statistics, PR and politics. In that order.
Philip
Unfortunately that rules out Mr PotatoEd, the whole of the LibDem party, David Cameron and most of the other numpties who currently hold power (pun intended) in the UK. Wont last. Stupidity has a shelf life and this particular stupidity is coming to the end of its! Make sure your UKIP man knows the political importance of linking economic performance with the cost of energy!!!!
nTropywins:
My UKIP man knows all right! He's not a numpty.
The sooner they get this stuff flowing the better. I've just paid a hefty gas bill for the last quarter. After having a quick sift through my old bills I realised the latest bill was over three times more expensive than the equivalent 2010 bill. Phew, global warming my sit upon.
Martyn.
We're told that fish are moving north because the oceans are getting warmer. However, despite the sunshine of the last few days the air is still cold and that's because the seas are much colder than normal. Yet another consequence of global warming: global warming is causing the oceans to heat up, which is causing the seas around the UK to get colder - you couldn't make it up (unless you're a warmist).
In reality, as long as the permissible earthquake limits are set so amazingly low, no one will ever drill for, let alone extract, shale gas....
The bureaucrats have all the cards and will play them as slowly as they possibly can until their political overlords tell them to grow up.
I used to be an Oxford PPE. But then I got saved.
Thanks for that synopsis Philip I'll sleep easy tonight knowing my future gas bills are set to continue going through the roof. Perhaps I should forward your synopsis on to Ed Davey he could include it in one of his speechlesses.
Martyn:
You need a "sustainable" form of energy. Ever thought of going out at night and harvesting local trees (sorry, I mean biomass)? It's the new source of renewable energy all over Europe. If you're very clever, you might even get a big Government (sorry, I mean taxpayer) subsidy for doing it because you will be helping to save the planet.
The "earthquake" meme gets trotted round the ring every time.
T'other day the Beeb reported an "earth tremor" of 3.4 on the Richter scale (I think it was in N. Wales) yet the far smaller disturbances of around 1 - 2 R (on a logarithmic scale) attributed to fracking in Cumbria are always reported as "earthquakes".
Diogenes: I fear you are right. The first mole fart will allow them to pull the plug.
mmm..how about badger furnaces...are they green enough?