Five Years to Assess UK Shale Gas Future, Says Cuadrilla

As France’s President François Hollande visits British Prime Minister David Cameron to discuss diplomatic, military and European integration issues, several communities in the United Kingdom are focusing on shale gas and fracking.

At the same time, Cuadrilla’s chairman Lord Browne of Madingley said that it would take five years to have a deeper understanding of British shale gas potential. The former chief of BP said that 20 to 40 wells are needed to judge the future prospects of the country.

“We have an idea of the UK's potential for shale - what we now need to do is figure out how much we can produce economically and how fast, which means wells need to be drilled and need to be fracked – there is no other way to do it," Browne told The Guardian on Friday.

BRITAIN COMMUNITIES: WHERE THE FUTURE OF SHALE GAS WILL BE DECIDED

Some communities in Lincolnshire are discussing the shale gas projects of Total in the area, while communities in West Sussex are meeting to collectively understand what could be the consequences on their constituency of a shale gas hunt.

Paris-based Total obtained new concession in Lincolnshire on January 13 to explore for share gas.

“Economically, it’ll be a huge impact for the national economy and locally, it will create jobs, quite clearly,” Lincolnshire County Executive Councilor Colin Davie commented, referring to the 30 million pounds investment put forward by the French energy firm.

If the population in Lincolnshire sounded pretty divided over shale gas, communities in West Sussex are less prone to give their green light. Natural Gas Europe will report on the meeting in Wisborough Green that will take place on Friday night.