Late on Tuesday afternoon, and within minutes of each other, two separate hearings in the Palace of Westminster examined the prospects for shale gas in the UK.
In the upper house, the Economic Affairs Committee was taking evidence from Chris Wright, the straight-talking boss of an American shale gas company. Wright, a boyish forty-something, gave their lordships a crash course in shale gas development, explaining the approach companies like his took in order to get gas out of the ground. Because every shale well is different, he said, shale companies have to experiment a bit, trying out different fracking recipes and techniques until they find one that works for them. There is no straightforward way of doing this – it is simply trial and error until they chance on a way forward. Fracking for shale gas is an art rather than a science.
Wright was very optimistic about the drill core data from the UK, believing that our shales could be at least as productive as some of those he had worked on back in America.
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