Privately held Cuadrilla, Bamber Bridge, UK, is offering a public view of seismic activity around two horizontal wells it soon will hydraulically fracture in Lancashire, England.
The company will post records of daily seismic monitoring around its Preston New Road shale gas exploration site and surrounding area on an electronic portal open since April 2017. The portal provides a public view of its environmental work.
Cuadrilla recently received approval to fracture the second well at Preston New Road against strong public opposition (OGJ Online, Sept. 20, 2018). The wells penetrated Carboniferous Upper and Lower Bowland shale.
The UK Oil and Gas Authority requires that operations cease if fracturing induces a seismic event of 0.5 local magnitude (ML) or above. Local magnitude is a Richter-like standard for measuring shallow events at distances less than 600 km.
Using high-sensitivity seismometers, the University of Liverpool has been monitoring the region around Cuadrilla’s 4.8-sq-km Preston New Road operational area, documenting regular, naturally occurring events of 1.5-2.0 ML.
Events below 1.5 ML are unlikely to be widely felt at the surface, according to a University of Liverpool professor working on the project.