UK ‘55 million years’ too late for fracking

Research claims British geology is unlikely to be suitable for hydraulic fracturing

Academics from a Scottish university have claimed the UK is 55 million years too late for hydraulic fracturing to work in this country.

Research published today (17 August) by Professor John Underhill from Heriot-Watt University, claims the geology of the British Isles will not support fracking.

In his report, the professor says a number of geological criteria must be met for hydraulic fracturing to be successful.

“The source rock should have a high organic content, a good thickness, be sufficiently porous, and have the right mineralogy,” he said.

“The organic matter must have been buried to a sufficient depth and heated to the degree that the source rock produces substantial amounts of gas or oil.”

He added the data and the geological map of the UK “shows a very different picture” to that of the US, where shale areas occur in relatively stable areas, away from the edges of active tectonic plates.

“A significant tilt affects the UK, which was initiated by active plate margin forces over 55 million years ago due to an upward surge of magma under Iceland and the subsequent formation of the Atlantic Ocean,” said Underhill.

“The latter led to buckling of precursor sedimentary basins against the stable tectonic interior of continental Europe, including those considered to contain large shale resources.

“Areas that were once buried sufficiently deeply with temperatures at which oil and gas maturation occurs, lifted to levels where they are no longer actively generating petroleum. They have also been highly deformed by folds and faults that cause the shales to be offset and broken up into compartments. This has created pathways that have allowed some of the oil and gas to escape.”

But Dr Andy Mortimer, a director of sub surface at Third Energy, which is looking to produce unconventional tight gas from its site in Kirby Misperton, said Professor Underhill was using a “limited data set”, which did not reflect oil company data. 

Mortimer said work by Cuadrilla to frack the Bowland Shale in Lancashire suggest the “achievable rates from production wells will be are excellent and equivalent to good US shale gas production wells”.

“The unconventional [gas] resource certainly in the Lancashire is very attractive”, he added.

In addition, he said exploration work by UKOG in the Weald Basin shows it is an “oil-prone” shale province that will not be part of addressing the UK’s gas shortage. UKOG’s Horse Hill-1 well has recently flowed at a “very attractive rate” of around 1,700 barrels a day.

Mortimer added Third Energy’s work on the Cleveland basin in Kirby Misperton has revealed a “very large gas charged section”.

“We have direct physical measurements of the gas in that well and I can say the section is full of gas,” he insisted.

Looking at the Bowland unconventional gas province, which runs across central England – from Cheshire to Yorkshire, he added: “It is inevitable that the potential will vary quite considerably. The rocks are not uniform. There will be areas within this province where the shale gas will work and there will be areas where it will work less well. The areas where it works less well will be less economic and may not get developed.”