Privately owned Cuadrilla Resources Ltd. again stopped hydraulic fracturing operations at its Preston New Road natural gas drilling site in Lancashire, northwest England, after minor tremors were detected Dec. 11. Fracturing in the Bowland shale has been halted three times since October.
“A series of microseismic events in Blackpool have been recorded on the British Geological Survey web site…following hydraulic fracturing at our shale gas exploration site,” Cuadrilla said.
The largest tremor, of 1.5 magnitude, was recorded after fracturing already had been stopped, Cuadrilla said.
The Oil & Gas Authority issued a news release saying it was the largest seismic event at Preston New Road so far but that the tremor would have needed to more than 30 times greater for the possibility of superficial damage to property.
Tom Wheeler, OGA director of regulation, said, “Our regulatory regime is deliberately cautious with strict controls in place to manage and monitor seismicity. This pause in operations allows us to review the event.”
Cuadrilla, based in Bamber Bridge, UK, is running initial flow tests at two horizontal wells in the Bowland shale where it drilled the first well into Carboniferous Lower Bowland shale at 2,300 m and the second in Upper Bowland shale at 2,100 m (OGJ Online, Sept. 20, 2018).
It says the wells are the first horizontal shale exploration wells drilled onshore in the UK, where popular resistance against hydraulic fracturing is strong.