Bloomberg: U.K. Shale’s Depth Means Wells Won’t Mar Landscape, Driller Says

The thickness of shale rock in northwest England will allow gas production with minimal disruption above the surface, the head of the explorer aiming to drill in the area said.

Shale in England’s Bowland basin is about three times as thick as the Marcellus deposit in the northeastern U.S. according to a geologist at the U.K.’s Keele University. That will allow horizontal wells to be stacked on top of one another, minimizing the number of well-heads on the surface, said Francis Egan, chief executive officer of Cuadrilla Resources Ltd.

“It’s quite unique, the thickness of the shale,” Egan, who joined the company last year from BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP), said in an interview in London. “What it opens up is the possibility of stacked laterals so you stack them like a staircase minimizing the surface footprint.”  MORE