LONDON: UK energy company Cuadrilla said Friday it has extracted a small but “encouraging” amount of shale gas for the first time since resuming fracking in Britain less than three weeks ago.
The 11-year-old private firm has borne the brunt of protests for trying to test whether fracking — a process in which water and chemicals are used to blast apart rock formations — can unlock natural gas deposits in the UK.
The method has transformed the global energy market but is only developing slowly in Europe.
“The volumes of gas returning to surface at this stage are small,” Cuadrilla chief executive Francis Egan said in a statement.
“However it provides early encouragement that the Bowland Shale can provide a significant source of natural gas to heat Lancashire and UK homes and offices and reduce our ever growing reliance on expensive foreign imports.”
Government data show natural gas being used to meet around 40 percent of Britain’s power and nearly 90 percent of its heating needs.
But UK gas production rates have been falling and it became a net importer of the fuel in 2004.
Firms such as Cuadrilla are hoping to step in and begin meeting some of the demand that is now primarily being filled by energy-rich Norway.
Cuadrilla produced small amounts of shale gas at the same site in 2011.
It was then forced to halt operations because two small earthquakes were soon registered in the northwestern part of England where its operations are based.
It resumed work on October 15 after adopting more stringent safety and regulatory measures that environmentalists said were still insufficient.
The company has since been forced to briefly halt drilling on three occasions because minor tremors began being detected deep underground.
Cuadrilla stressed at the time that none of them could either be felt or cause physical damage on the surface.
“This Preston New Road site is being monitored to an unprecedented level,” Egan said in Friday’s statement.
Greenpeace UK chief John Sauven called the fracking announcement a blow to campaigners’ efforts to win government backing for alternative fuels such as wind power.
“It is truly bewildering how little fossil fuel companies need to offer in order to get whole-hearted, full-throated government support, and how much clean technologies can offer and still be blocked,” Sauven said.
Cuadrilla said on its website that tests from 2011 suggest it can produce 6.5 billion cubic feet (185 million cubic meters) of gas from the Bowland Shale well over 30 years.
The figure corresponds to about five times the volume of gas produced in Britain last year.
UK fracking firm produces first shale gas
UK fracking firm produces first shale gas
