The UK shale gas reserves seem to be much huger than previously thought. According to BBC News citing the British Geological Survey, the Bowland shale basin alone is estimated to have 1,300 trillion cubic feet (about 37 trillion cubic meters) of natural gas. And yet, the experts did not specify how much gas exactly these shale fields could give to Britons and whether the exploitation would be economically advantageous. The geologists are yet to deliver the final estimation of gas shale reserves in the country and potential financial benefits of shale drilling. In early June, IGas company, owning a field of over 770 square kilometers in the northern part of Great Britain, upgraded its estimation of gas reserves almost 20-fold, to 5 trillion cubic meters. Cuadrilla, developing a field in Lancashire, claimed that it is sitting on 5.7 trillion cubic feet of shale gas.
The development of shale gas fields is one of the top priorities for the UK authorities. Still, experts say that British formations are more difficult to drill and fracture than those of the U.S., for instance. In addition, scientists doubt whether hydraulic fracturing is environmentally safe. The point is that fracking is the process of drilling and injecting a highly pressurized fluid, a mixture of sand, chemicals and water, into the shale area. This way of natural gas extraction was prohibited in the UK in 2011 after it provoked some minor earthquakes in Lancashire. In 2012 however, the British government lifted the ban on fracking.