Cuadrilla recently announced that it has begun to see natural gas flow to the surface from its shale exploration well at the Preston New Road site. The gas returned to surface, along with water being recycled from the shale rock, after hydraulic fracturing a small section of the shale surrounding the first horizontal exploration well. The company did not release details of flow rates other than to say; “The volumes of gas returning to surface at this stage are small.  However considering that we are only at the very start of fracturing operations and, given operating constrains, have not yet been able to inject as much sand into the shale as we had planned, this is a good early indication of the gas potential that we have long talked about.”

In Early October a conference on “SHALEOLOGY” was held at the Geological Society of London, part of which was recorded and is available on YouTube. This 3 hour recording contains some excellent diverse talks for those who have an interest in this topic.