SCIENCE BRIEFING

2013

Shale Gas:
BGS research
The BGS provides independent, expert and impartial
geological advice to both industry and government

Q: What exactly is Shale Gas?

A: Shale gas is mostly methane. Methane
is natural gas and is the gas used to
generate electricity, and for domestic
heating and cooking. Shale gas is
produced using technologies developed
since the 1980s that enable gas to be
recovered from rocks (mostly shale)
which were previously considered to be
unsuitable for extracting gas.
Q: How does it differ from
conventional gas?
A: Conventional gas comes from
a source rock that was buried and
heated at considerable depth (up to
thousands of metres below the surface).
Temperature increases with depth, and
hydrocarbons, such as oil and gas,
are released from the source rocks at
different rates depending on how fast the
rocks are heated. These hydrocarbons
migrate upwards and may find their way
into a porous reservoir rock. If this is
overlain by an impermeable cap (or

A shale outcrop in the UK.

seal) rock the hydrocarbons become

trapped. The hydrocarbons are extracted
by drilling through the cap rock into
the reservoir. These hydrocarbons,
which can be relatively easily
recovered, are known as conventional
hydrocarbons and have been exploited
for more than 100 years. North Sea
gas is a conventional hydrocarbon.
With unconventional hydrocarbons,
and shale gas in particular, the rock
which contains the hydrocarbons is
virtually impermeable and so acts as
hydrocarbon source rock, reservoir
and seal. The gas is both produced
and trapped within the shale. It is only
when the shale is drilled and artificially
fractured that the gas is released from
the rock and can be extracted. The
process of artificially fracturing the rock
is called fracking.
Q: Theres been a lot of interest
within the UK on shale gas
prospectively, with lots of
activity in the North West of
Englandwhat other main areas
of interest are there within the
UK?
A: There are several different rock units
within the geological sequence of the
UK that have the potential to produce
shale gas. The main interest is in the
Carboniferous units, particularly the
Bowland Shale Formation which occurs
throughout parts of north west and
Central and Eastern England. Other units
of interest occur in the Jurassic rocks
of the Weald Basin, parts of southern
and north eastern England, and County
Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. There
is a possibility that much older Lower
Palaeozoic rocks in Wales and central
England may be prospective for shale gas
(although this remains to be confirmed
as it has not been fully evaluated by
exploration companies or BGS).

Factfile
Shale is a very fine-grained
sedimentary rock formed from
clay, silt or mud and is one of
the most abundant sedimentary
rock types in the Earths shallow
crust
Shale gas is mostly composed
of methane (CH4) otherwise
known as natural gas and can
be recovered from shale using
hydraulic fracturing i.e. fracking
The BGS will play its part
in providing up-to-date and
accurate information on
resources and the environment
to the public, industry and
government
Q: How do we get the gas out
of the Shale?
A: Advances in technology, developed
principally in the USA, have meant that
gas can now be extracted from shales
and other low permeability rocks.
Transferring these technologies from
the USA to the UK could give rise to
shale gas production if gas occurs in
the rocks in commercial quantities. After
initial exploration of the shale deposits,
a borehole is drilled into the shale
horizon at a carefully selected site. It may
be drilled horizontally to increase the
volume of rock that can be accessed by
the borehole. A process called hydraulic
fracturing (fracking) is undertaken. This
involves pumping water into isolated
sections of the borehole at pressures high
enough to fracture the surrounding rock.
Sand entrained in the water helps to prop
open the fractures, create permeability
in the rock and allow the gas to flow into
the borehole. Chemicals are also added
to improve the efficiency of the fracking
operation.

SCIENCE BRIEFING
2013

Shale Gas:
BGS research
Q: Are there any risks associated
with fracking?
A: Shale gas extraction and fracking
has received a huge amount of media
interest. Just like any other industrial
process there will be associated risks.
Some of those relevant to shale gas
include induced seismicity, such as the
low magnitude earthquakes experienced
in Lancashire in 2011. There is also
the potential for groundwater and
surface water contamination. This
may arise from surface activities that
may lead to spills associated with
the storage and mixing chemicals at
the drill/ fracking site or the storage/
management of fluids that return to the
surface from the borehole, the so-called
flowback and produced waters. Other
potential pathways for contamination of
groundwater include poor well-design
and well construction, and the migration
of contaminants along natural pathways
into overlying aquifers. Understanding
the risks is a very important step in
the design and approval process and
very strict controls and regulations
are in place to reduce the risks to an
acceptable level.
Q: How dangerous are the induced
earthquakes caused by fracking?
A: The two main induced earthquakes in
Lancashire in 2011 were very small. To
put them into context, they were smaller
than most of the earth tremors that have
been associated with coal mining in the
1950s and 60s and that occur today.
Q: What do you think the likely
impact will be on groundwater?
A: There are two potential impacts on
groundwater. The first is associated with
the supply and consumption of water
for fracking as groundwater may be
considered as a source of this water. The
second is contamination of groundwater.
In both cases the regulations that apply

to shale gas extraction will require a

detailed risk assessment before any
authorisation or permit is granted. Before
granting a permit the relevant regulatory
authority (e.g. the Environment Agency
in England) will need to be satisfied that
the activity will not cause pollution of
groundwater or lead to unsustainable
abstraction. Once approved, monitoring
of the environment will be required as
part of permit conditions to demonstrate
that no impact is occurring. To
provide an independent environmental
baseline against which this compliance
monitoring can be compared, BGS is
undertaking a baseline survey of methane
concentrations in groundwater ahead of
any shale gas development as there is
currently no UK baseline. The baseline
study is not only restricted to methane.
A wider range of chemical indicator
parameters are also being measured
and the results will supplement the data
already published by the BGS and used
to set groundwater threshold values
(standards) for the EU Water Framework
Directive.

Shale gas clearly has

potential in Britain but it
will require geological
and engineering expertise,
investment and protection of
the environment.
Prof Mike Stephenson,
Director of Science and
Technology, BGS
Q: Can shale gas meet the UKs
energy needs?
A: Estimates of the amount of
recoverable gas and the gas resources
are variable. It is possible that the
shale gas resources in UK are very
large. However, despite the size of the

resource, the proportion that can be

recovered is the critical factor. A better
understanding of the shale gas resource,
and the amount of gas that is potentially
recoverable, will come from further
geological research, such as that carried
out by the BGS.
Q: What role does BGS play in
shale gas research?
A: BGSs main role is to evaluate the
amount of shale gas present and how
safe it is to extract. BGS is taking a
central role in shale gas research in the
UK and also across Europe as follows:
Undertaking a baseline groundwater
survey of methane concentrations
and other relevant chemical
indicators in ground waters across
Great Britain;
Evaluating the spatial relationship
between different potential shale
gas source rocks and the principal
aquifers in England and Wales;
Researching the induced seismicity
that may be related to fracking;
studies of the organic content and
the organic make-up of the shales
to improve understanding of how
much shale gas they might produce
and how the gas is stored within the
rocks;
Understanding the distribution and
correlation of shale and how the
shale layers behave in response to
depositional and tectonic controls;
Advice and guidance for government
in trying to understand the amount
of gas that may be both in place
and possibly recoverable within the
shales in the UK.
More information:
www.bgs.ac.uk/shalegas
Contact Prof Mike Stephenson, Director of
Science and Technology: mhste@bgs.ac.uk

www.bgs.ac.uk