Egdon Ups Ante With Lincolnshire Shale Prediction

British explorer Egdon Resources says recoverable shale gas in Lincolnshire could be as much as 16 trillion cubic feet (tcf), adding more impetus to the anticipated quest for shale in the UK.

Britain's estimated shale yield to date has been focused on Lancashire and more recently West Sussex. It was recently estimated that extraction of shale gas could be worth £4 billion (€4.6bn) annually to the UK economy.

Egdon released a statement saying that it had purchased 60% of a new exploration licence in the area, and believed this new block, south of the city of Scunthorpe,  contained another 3tcf. The company is also drilling for oil, but noted potential for "significant" shale gas resources.

"Egdon estimates that the total in-place volume of gas within the Pendleian Shale interval in PEDL209 could alone amount to over 3 trillion cubic feet. Further, as with PEDL139 and PEDL140, PEDL209 is interpreted as holding additional shale-gas potential in the thick Lower Carboniferous sequence which underlies the Pendleian Shale but which remains to be tested by drilling in the region," the statement says.

Petroleum Exploration and Development Licence 209 covers 64 square kilometres (sq km), or 24.7 square miles.

The statement quotes Mark Abbott, Egdon's managing director, saying: "Importantly the farm-in also delivers on our stated strategy of providing Egdon with increased exposure to shale-gas potential in an area identified by Egdon as containing an extension of the “sweet spot” of the Pendleian Shale play identified in our adjoining Gainsborough Trough licences PEDL139 and PEDL140."

Blackland Park Exploration holds 28% of the licence, and Stelinmatvic Industries 12%.

See also: Egdon Gets Promising Outlook on Lincolnshire Shale