LONDON: UK shale gas company Cuadrilla Resources plans to undertake four months of exploration drilling work this summer at a site to the south of London, it said yesterday.
The company intends to drill a vertical well 3,000 feet deep near the village of Balcombe in West Sussex to take samples of the underground rock, with a possible horizontal leg extending 2,500 feet from the vertical section.
Cuadrilla said neither the horizontal or vertical well will be hydraulically fractured. Fracking is a way to retrieve gas trapped in tight layered rock formations by injecting high-pressure water, sand and chemicals.
Fracking remains extremely controversial in the United Kingdom, with the government only just having lifted an almost year-long ban imposed after work triggered small earthquakes near the northern seaside resort of Blackpool.
A short flow test will be carried out at the Balcombe site if any oil or gas is discovered, Cuadrilla said.
“It is envisaged that the work will take no more than four months and the site cleared of equipment no later than the end of September this year,” it said.
Reuters
