Supply to more than meet demand
It was recently reported that iGas studies show that sites in
the north-west of England contain much larger shale gas resources
than previously anticipated. These studies indicate that north-west
sites (areas in Lancashire and Cheshire) have a capacity of
somewhere between 15-170 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of shale gas, up
from the 9 tcf previously estimated by iGas. Reports in the press
this week have added credence to these studies, with an
announcement that The British Geological Survey, in a report
prepared for the Government, has found that there could be 1,300
tcf of shale gas at a single site alone in the North of England. To
give this some context, the entire gas reserves left in the UK
North Sea are estimated to currently be as little as 7 tcf. If
these potential shale gas resources can be utilised, reports
suggest that this could meet Britain's gas consumption for
decades to come, narrowing the ever-alarming "energy
gap".
