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You are here: Parliament home page > Parliamentary business > Publications and Records >
Committee Publications > All Select Committee Publications > Commons Select Committees >
Energy and Climate Change > Energy and Climate Change

S ession 2010-11

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Shale Gas
Memorandum submitted by British Geological S urvey (S G 03)

Unconventional hydrocarbon exploration can be defined as obtaining fossil fuel energy

directly from hydrocarbon source rocks, whereas conventional exploration targets
hydrocarbons that have migrated to a reservoir, mainly sandstones and limestones.
Organic-rich shale contains significant amounts of gas held within fractures and
micro-pores and adsorbed onto organic matter. Shale gas prospectivity is controlled by the
amount and type of organic matter held in the shale, thermal maturity, burial history,
micro-porosity and fracture spacing and orientation. In the UK licences have already been
taken up by forward-thinking companies and the interest will be high for the next licensing
round.

The initial success has been exploring for gas but in a few US basins oil is being targeted.
Four different types of exploration are possible:

1. Gas window source rock maturity areas

2. Biogenic gas in source rocks immature for oil

3. Biogenic gas in older source rocks which have been rejuvenated by bacteria-laden
freshwater flushes

4. Oil window source rock maturity areas

1 What are the prospects for shale gas in the UK?

It is too early in exploration of UK shales to be certain about the contribution which shale
gas production could make. In the US shale gas extracted from regionally extensive units
such as the Barnett Shale currently accounts for ~6% of gas production. Comparisons with
the US suggest that there will be some production in the UK and all organic-rich shales in
the UK are likely to be tested for their resource potential. Company exploration
information will be confidential for several more years because the license holdings are not
yet resolved and information on new hydrocarbon plays is always tightly controlled.

The lowest risk exploration is where source rocks have accompanying conventional
hydrocarbon fields, which in the UK include the Upper Bowland Shale of the Pennine
Basin, the Kimmeridge Clay of the Weald Basin and possibly the Lias of the Weald Basin.
Deeper Dinantian shales should also be tested in the Pennine Basin and possibly in the
Oil-Shale Group of the M idland Valley. Higher risk is attached to the Upper Cambrian
source rock on the M idland M icrocraton, which although it has not been severely
tectonised, has not sourced conventional fields that have been preserved. The highest level
of risk is attached to black shales within the Caledonian and Variscan fold belts, which have
high organic carbon but are tectonised (affected by thrusts, intruded by igneous intrusions

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and converted to slates) and also have no overlying fields.

The BGS have written reports on Worldwide Shale Gas and UK prospectivity for DECC,
parts of which have been included in their Promote website prior to the 14th Round of
Onshore Hydrocarbon Licensing.

https://www.og.decc.gov.uk/upstream/licensing/shalegas.pdf

These reports contain a fuller analysis of the prospects, data and risks. Key data relating to
shale porosity, permeability and gas content has not been acquired in the past because
conventional hydrocarbon exploration has concentrated on sandstones and limestones. The
properties of shales have been largely ignored. The BGS also have a paper, based on our
work up to M arch 2009, just published in the 7th Petroleum Conference proceedings (I
sent this to you as a pdf).

M ap showing some of the main potential source rocks at outcrop, in relation to the
conventional gasfields and gas discoveries. Larger subsurface extents of the source rocks are
excluded from this simplified map. Lower Palaeozoic, higher risk prospects not all shown
and partly underlie M esozoic formations.

2 What are the risks of rapid depletion of shale gas resources?

For a number of reasons exploration in the UK is likely to be slow at first. Only three
licences in the 13th Round of Onshore Hydrocarbon Licensing in 2008 were targeted on
shale gas. On one of these the first exploration well has been drilled (Preese Hall by
Cuadrilla Resources). Hydraulic fracturing will commence in January 2011 according to
their website. It is unlikely that existing licence holders on acreage taken for other (Coalbed
methane or conventional hydrocarbons) targets or new awards in the 14th Round could
achieve a faster completion than that of Cuadrilla, in view of the planning laws, lack of
benefit to locals (in contrast to US) and the technological advances (not all applicable to
conventional exploration) that need to be applied. The relatively densely populated state
of the UK is also a hindrance to development.

If only small quantities of gas can be produced from the shale horizons then it is inevitable
that there will be a rapid depletion. If there is success in any of the plays then large parts
of the country will be opened up, but it will be a slower process than in the US.

‘It is estimated that the UK could be producing 10% of its current gas needs from
shale if it can be extracted at a commercial rate’

This statement from the call for written evidence is based on the position reached in the US
about a year ago, and reported in the press, when US shale gas contributed about 10% of
their needs. This needs several qualifications to be applicable to the UK. Firstly in 10
years time the figure will be 30% or more in the US because nearly all the discoveries there
are now in ‘unconventionals’. Secondly in the US there is no significant offshore gas
production. Thirdly, assuming near complete discovery of conventional fields, there is
likely to be a relationship between conventional and unconventional production in any
basin because they both derive from the same hydrocarbon source rocks. Therefore in the

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UK, dominated by (current) large offshore gas production and large offshore basins, it is
not realistic to compare these figures with the UK’s likely onshore unconventional
production. UK onshore basins are small in comparison with UK offshore and US onshore
basins.

Offshore shale gas would have the size to affect the figures more dramatically. The US has
no need to look offshore and no plans as yet, so we would have to lead the way (very
difficult from our level of ignorance so far) but a lot of the existing infrastructure in the
North Sea could be used. BGS unconventional hydrocarbon resource reports have not
looked at the offshore.

3 What are the implications of large discoveries of shale gas for UK energy?

If shale gas can be produced in the rest of the world this will temporarily reduce the
importance of the large LNG exporters. The US has mothballed some of its projected
terminals and the tankers are being diverted to Europe. The security of supply both for
domestic and imported gas will improve because producers will need to sell and prices are
likely to fall, perhaps marginalising the more difficult shale gas exploration.

January 2011

©Parliamentary copyright Prepared 3rd February 2011

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