Laura Hughes (left), Cuadrilla’s Commercial Director, at the Preston New Road shale gas site near Blackpool. Photo: Still from video produced for Cuadrilla Resources
The fracking company, Cuadrilla, has dismissed fears that shale gas in the Fylde area of Lancashire would contain large amounts of hydrogen sulphide, a hazardous gas associated with the smell of rotten eggs.
Concerns were raised earlier this month in a report by the geologist Robin Grayson on the website Researchgate.
He said there was a culture of secrecy about hydrogen sulphide (H2S) in gas in the Fylde and there were proven examples in the shales in Lancashire.
Mr Grayson said gas with high levels of H2S, known as sour gas, was also produced from shales under the seabed off Lancashire, Merseyside and North Wales and then treated at Rampside and Point of Ayr.
He said drilling for sour gas was dangerous and local communities should have been informed by companies and regulators. He said:
“All drilling should cease immediately on grounds of public safety and the need for Parliament and enforcement agencies to investigate the large mountain of evidence.”
But in a live webcast this afternoon, Cuadrilla’s commercial director, Laura Hughes, said there was no sour gas at Preston New Road:
“That has been found in reservoirs offshore in the east Irish Sea and across the globe.
“There’s no indication that we have hydrogen sulphide, there’s no indication that we have sour gas here in the Bowland Shale. That’s both in this well and the data that we’ve got from historic wells.
“So there’s no sour gas here.”
The 50-minute webcast, the third organised by Cuadrilla from its Preston New Road shale gas site, was watched by about 80 people at any one time.
Ms Hughes said Cuadrilla expected gas to be released from the Preston New Road wells in the middle of 2018 after the company finished drilling two horizontal wells.
She said a vertical pilot well had almost reached the target depth, more than 2km below the surface. The company had collected core samples of rock, which would be analysed on the site and in specialist laboratories.
“Drilling is going very well. We are getting the information we need.”
The webcast heard there were currently about 30 people on site, split between Cuadrilla employees and contractors, working on the well and on testing the samples.
Core samples taken from the Preston New Road site near Blackpool. Photo: Still from video for Cuadrilla Resources
Gas bubbles coming from a core samples taken from the Preston New Road site near Blackpool. Photo: Still from video for Cuadrilla Resources
Ms Hughes said the company would be looking at how fractures created by the fracking process would spread through the shale rock. She said the rock properties would vary throughout the shale layers. The company was looking for the sweet spots, she said.
“Which layer will see horizontal drilling will be decided by mechanical qualities of the rock and quality of the gas in the formation.”
“It’s all about the geology.”
Ms Hughes said Cuadrilla planned to drill horizontally for about 1km from the Preston New Road wellhead westwards towards Blackpool.
She described horizontal drilling as “perfectly safe” and said “there will be no interaction with local properties.”
The well at a depth of 2km would have a diameter of 6 inches, she said.
Drill pipes with a slight bend to be used to create the horizontal well. Photo: Still from video for Cuadrilla Resources
Drill bits at Preston New Road shale gas site. Photo: Still from video for Cuadrilla Resources
Pipes with equipment to record information about depth and location of horizontal drilling which is then sent back to the surface as a series of pulses. Photo: Still from video for Cuadrilla Resources
Ms Hughes didn’t indicate how many wells might be drilled from Preston New Road but she said:
“The idea is that you would have one location that you would be drawing gas from a wider area of the sub surface so it lessens the surface impact.”
Blowout preventer at Preston New Road shale gas site. Photo: Still from video for Cuadrilla Resources
Blowout preventer at Preston New Road shale gas site. Photo: Still from video for Cuadrilla Resources
Categories: Industry
DRILL OR DROP? 
Oh dear. And the oil at Balcombe is likely to be sour too? What a rotten coincidence! It was sour in the mid-80s, when Conoco drilled. I can’t see that it will have miraculously changed over the intervening decades. Poor Cuadrilla? Oh dear.
So we begin to see hear and smell the truth of the sour gas bad smell and respiratory problems being experienced throughout the “testing sites”?
So we can say with a great deal of accuracy, that the fracking industry stinks to high heaven in every sense of the words.
One more monkey to add to the fracking industry iconic blinkered logo:
See no truth, hear no truth, speak no truth, think no truth, smell no truth.
Only the sense of taste of truth to go, but of course most of us know that, and more and more know it every day, as this fracking debacle continues,, this poisonous industry leaves a bad taste in our mouths all the time.
Kathryn
The good news is that the Lancashire shale gas is not sour. It’s easy to prove when you have got some to sample. Lucky Cuadrilla.
Re Balcombe, Conoco went for the Great Oolite and did not core the Kimmeridge. What they found is a matter of fact. What is in the Kimmeridge Limestone, the Cuadrilla target will no doubt become well known once flow tested. There has been flow from the Kimmeridge from recent wells in the Weald, so maybe we already know the most likely answer. Looks like they may be as lucky in the South as the North.
For flaring issues ( as sour oil is just mainly a processing issue ) there would need to be accompanying sour gas.
Such a pity when facts get in the way of a good scare story!
Good to hear there is no sour gas at PNR. Cuadrilla 1 Fluffers 0.
Next? Disturbing the underground lair of the Kraken, swum around from Norway and up an underground aquifer to hibernate at PNR?
Interesting that those rigs out to sea off Blackpool had the issue of sour gas to deal with, and guess what-did so! No donkeys harmed in the process.
Gas bubbling out of the PNR core samples-nearly there.
Winter’s here. Climate’s changing.Turn up the gas central heating, funded for the locals from Cuadrilla payout. Property values around PNR should be on the rise with their built in income stream, like those in Cumbria now they are to demolish the wind turbines.
Oh yes martin thanks for reminding me.
Yet another monkey for the fracking debacle polluted zoo collection:
Post no truth.
Have you noticed that the failed fracking fraternity continually use fracking as a threat now? And also the cries of “you need us”!
Fearmongering isn’t it?
It’s not how good or safe or wonderful fracking is anymore. It’s all perceived threats to impose fracking on us whether we like it or not.
…….not!
They now don’t even bother to hide that fracking is, and always has been totally polluting, dangerous, threatening to health and life, and in fact just downright fracking evil.
There are now so few die hard positives left about fracking. (I can only think of one) that the anti wind power climate change denier [edited by moderator]types are almost all we see now?
The only threat they have left is this series of In Junk Shams to foist this poisonous industry onto the British tax payer against their will with.
Nothing else works anymore.
Pathetic really, since it seems in order to force this poisonous industry onto us they have to resort to a secret court system to overturn common law legal rights and contravene the human rights laws.
Rule by internal corporate dictatorship injunction, forget vast armies and tanks and bombers to invade a country, just take out a cheap injunction against an entire country objecting against it?
Hey presto! Even the countries own government and police suddenly switch sides to support the invaders dictatorship corporate coffers.
Coppers for corporate coffers against community coughers?
That secret court system was originally set up for matters of national emergency and security, not common law civil cases.
So even the In Junk Sham has hijacked a totally inappropriate secret part of the British legal system that was never meant for common law and civil cases.
You have to wonder how they managed to wangle that little wheeze, or was that the governments intention to hide behind the secret courts all along?
Is this a failed representative democracy or some fracked up trumped up pumped up corporate Oiligarchy?
And are we now just slaves coming to the realisation that is all we are and all we ever were in their darkly hooded eyes?
Not much gas bubbling out of the shale in the picture. One must think that commercial flow rate will be less likely. Investors must be worrying to see that picture.
Shocking to see those people standing next to the core and not wearing any H2S detectors. A serious breach of HSE. Or maybe there’s no H2S…..
Al-no sour gas, only sour grapes. The shrieks will get louder yet.
And increasingly sour posts from the anti anti antics.
Posts from them is like much Boris Johnson defending you in Iran?
The kiss of death.
Cuadrilla’s PNR activities are an exploratory ‘wildcat’. Emergency measures must be in place. Robin
[Edited by moderator] Did it even occur to you to ask the people who are drilling, and have the actual facts about h2s content before speculating about it to the press? [Edited by moderator]
what have facts got to do with anything ? 🙂
According to the ‘frackers’ apparently nothing at all 😉
Ruth wrote, “Concerns were raised earlier this month in a report by the geologist Robin Grayson on the website Researchgate.”
This means nothing as anyone can post papers on Researchgate as I have. It gives Grayson no status at all. This is simply self-published on Research Gate and does give any indication that it was peer-reviewed and is thus just a geologist’s opinions.
To be fair, Michael, pal review doesn’t carry any weight these days either.
‘thus just a geologist’s opinions.’ which we get frequently on here from pro frackers; are you suggesting we don’t take them seriously?
I would look for reasoned arguments from an expert instead
Of course Geology is all guesswork, you only really know what you’ve got when you find it. A mathematician, geologist & geophysicist were asked what “1+1” is. The mathematician said 2, the geologist said 3 and the geophysicist said “what do you want it to be”. That about sums it all up – so yes, there’s a good chance of hydrogen sulphide. Maybe not at this well, maybe not in the shale beds at this lateral 8 inch wide location in the shale. And why not further up? Big pockets of gas in the Millstone grit that’s risen up from the shale and nicely trapped by the Manchester Marl ‘cap rock’ that Cuadrilla are claiming stops any flow of gas upwards. Maybe soon they’ll be hoping it’s not an impermeable barrier to fluid migration to ensure they avoid hydrogen sulphide! But carry on drilling and hope – any gas has the potential to go back up the well with the used drilling fluid in an ‘open system’ before fracking starts. To be safely captured and the details publicised? Yep, carry on drilling and hope – it’s all indeterministic guesswork. I’m sure everything is being carefully recorded and monitored … independently by the HSE, or is it OGA or maybe the EA …
Robin is incorrect to assert that Bowland shale sourced oil & gas in the Permo-Triassic hosted oil fields and surface seeps means that gas buried deep within the Bowlnad shale will also be sour. Sour gas is often caused by microbial activity related to groundwater penetration through natural processes , or by injected water in oil recovery methods.