Gas Drilling Trials Near Blackpool
Planners at Lancashire County Council have granted energy company, Cuadrilla Resources, permission to construct a 29m-high drilling platform in Westby, near Blackpool, to enable them to carry out oil exploration tests, reports The Business Desk
Cuadrilla Resources, which is backed by the former BP chief Lord Browne, is hoping to locate shale gas trapped 10,000 feet below the surface in the Bowland shale – which runs from Pendle Hill near Preston to the Irish Sea.
The company believes Lancashire could potentially provide up to 10% of the UK’s gas supply with shale gas potentially reducing the need for some imports into Britain when North Sea supplies run down.
Speaking to Channel 4, Chris Cornelius, founder of Cuadrilla Resources, said:
“We’re quite confident that we’ll find gas – it’s just whether we find gas in economic quantities. I don’t think we’ll ever be like the US, but I think there will certainly be the possibility that we’ll find significant volumes of gas in various parts of Europe, which will be potentially commercial”
Shale gas was previously considered too expensive to retrieve but new technology has made it more viable to consider.