Early in the New Year the British Geological Survey (BGS) will publish its estimate of the Bowland Basin shale gas reserve in the north-west of England. In December The Times claimed it had learnt that the deposit around Blackpool’s north-western area alone is 50 percent larger than the estimate of 200 trillion cubic feet made by the UK’s only licensed drilling company, Cuadrilla.  To put this in context, the estimate that the 1,000 square kilometer Bowland Basin to the east of Blackpool may contain 300 trillion cubic feet of gas is the equivalent of 17 times as much gas as is left in the North Sea… Sitting on top of one of the biggest shale gas fields in the world with enough gas to fuel the UK for 50 years, the UK’s New Year shale gas resolution may well translate into Europe’s first full-scale energy revolution by 2015.

(Dr. Benny Peiser)