The National: Barclays backs search for shale gas in Yorkshire

Barclays is backing the search for shale gas in Yorkshire and could fund fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, in the area as early as next year.

Third Energy, which is 97 per cent-owned by Barclays Natural Resource Investments, a private equity arm of the bank, took shale rock samples while drilling in Kirby Misperton, Ryedale, in North Yorkshire this summer and is now analysing their potential, The Sunday Telegraph reported yesterday.

The company has drilling rights across a 400 square kilometres area around the Vale of Pickering, which sits above part of the Bowland shale formation. The British Geological Survey estimates that 1,300 trillion cubic feet of shale gas lies within the Bowland, which stretches from Cheshire to Yorkshire. If 10 per cent could be extracted it could meet UK needs for 40 years.  MORE