Igas Applies for UK Shale Exploration Permit
UK-based Igas has submitted a planning application to drill two wells in North Nottinghamshire as part of its shale gas exploration efforts, it said March 16. These wells will be “an important step in helping us to understand the shale gas potential in North Nottinghamshire and more widely in the East Midlands and Yorkshire. A successful exploration well would, in all likelihood, lead to a subsequent planning application to flow test a well which would involve hydraulic fracturing,” it said.
In northwest England it is in the process of identifying a number of sites for further appraisal drilling and hydraulic fracturing of the wells to determine flow rates and assess commerciality.
Last year the government announced that the need to explore and test for shale gas was a "national priority" and set out to all local authorities a number of measures that have been implemented to ensure the planning system works effectively. In January 2015 Lancashire County Council had voted against approving Cuadrilla’s application to drill for shale gas using hydraulic fracturing, setting back the start of UK shale gas production.
After the farm-out to petrochemicals company Ineos it still operates one of the largest net acreage positions in the UK, it said, winning 17 blocks in the 14th onshore licensing round.
It said it had a “very significant total gross carried shale work programme amounting to up to $255mn" at the period end which it operates on behalf of its partners: Ineos, and French firms Total and Engie E&P. It says it has “sufficient acreage across all of the UK's shale basins to be well placed to make a significant contribution to home grown gas production from shale.”
Its financials in the first nine months of the year (to December 31) were materially impacted by low oil prices, with an average realised price of $58.9/barrel of oil equivalent (2014/15: $94.0/boe); impairments in the period were £48.1mn (€61.1mn) (net of tax) (2014/15: £1.6mn); and it made a loss of £44.8mn. It has however cut its operating costs by over a quarter.
William Powell