The BGS has an important, impartial role to play in terms of better understanding the environmental risks and impacts that might arise from shale gas industry operations.
Shale gas is extracted from the impermeable shale rock through a process called hydraulic fracturing (also known as hydrofracking or fracking).
What are the risks associated with extracting shale gas?
Groundwater contamination
On average, around 20 million litres of water are needed during the life cycle of a well. The waste water (‘flow back’) needs to be treated properly and kept isolated from the surrounding aquifers. Other potential pathways for contamination of groundwater include poor well design or construction and the migration of contaminants along natural pathways into overlying aquifers.
Climate
Concerns include the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and other greenhouse gasses when the shale gas play is exploited. This also includes ‘fugitive’ emissions, which are composed of CH4 that flows to the surface after fracking and can affect the atmosphere.
Air quality
There can be a negative effect on local air quality and noise pollution caused by the many truck movements during the life cycle of a shale gas well.
Induced tremors
Induced, low-magnitude tremors, such as those experienced in Lancashire in 2011, can be a consequence of the process of hydraulic fracturing.
How does BGS research help?
The BGS is the coordinator for the pan-European Horizon2020 (SECURe) project, which gathers scientific evidence relating to monitoring the environment and mitigating risk in order to guide subsurface geoenergy development.
We are also a major contributor of the NERC-funded Unconventional Hydrocarbons in the UK Energy System project. This aims to improve the understanding of unconventional hydrocarbon development in the UK, taking a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to identifying the potential environmental, social and economic impacts.
Our research is currently focused in the following main areas.
Environmental impacts and monitoring
- Fingerprinting gases using stable C and H isotope systems
- 51ΑΤΖζ groundwater research
Basin analysis
- High-resolution biostratigraphy
- Chemostratigraphy and sequence stratigraphy
- Thermal maturity (vitrinite reflectance)
- High-resolution borehole core scanning
- GIS databases and modelling
- Seismic processing and interpretation of geophysical datasets
- Wireline interpretation
- Fracture analysis
- Borehole breakouts
- Stress fields
- Rock physics modelling
- Transport and deformation properties of shales
- Microscopy
- Geochemistry
- Organic geochemistry
- National Environmental Isotope Facility (NEIF)
Further reading
Andrews, I J. 2014. . (London, UK: 51ΑΤΖζ for DECC.)
Andrews, I J. 2013. . (London, UK: 51ΑΤΖζ for DECC.)
Emmings, J F, Dowey, P J, Taylor, K G, Davies, S J, Vane, C H, Moss-Hayes, V, and Rushton, J C. 2020. .ΜύMarine and Petroleum Geology, Vol. 120, 104567.
Greenhalgh, E. 2014. . (London, UK: 51ΑΤΖζ for the Oil and Gas Authority.)
Hennissen, J A I, Hough, E, Vane, C H, Leng, M J, Kemp, S J, and Stephenson, M H. 2017. .ΜύMarine and Petroleum Geology, Vol. 86, 1047β1066.
Loveless, S E, Bloomfield, J P, Ward, R S, Hart, A J, Davey, I R, and Lewis, M A. 2018. .ΜύHydrogeology Journal, Vol. 26, 1975β1987.
Lowry, D, Fisher, R E, France, J L, Coleman, M, LanoisellΓ©, M, Zazzeri, G, Nisbet, E G, Shaw, J T, Allen, G, Pitt, J, and Ward, R S. 2020. .ΜύScience of the Total Environment, Vol. 708, 134600.
Monaghan, A. 2014. [Online] . (DECC website, now OGA.)
Ougier-Simonin, A, Renard, F, Boehm, C, and Vidal-Gilbert, S. 2016. .ΜύEarth Science Reviews, Vol. 162, 198β226.
Schultz, R, Skoumal, R J, Brudzinski, M R, Eaton, D, Baptie, B, and Ellsworth, W. 2020. .ΜύReviews of Geophysics, Vol. 58(3), e2019RG000695.
Whitelaw, P, Uguna, C N, Stevens, L A, Meredith, W, Snape, C E, Vane, C H, Moss-Hayes, V, and Carr, A D. 2019. .ΜύNature Communications, Vol. 10, Article 3659.
For all BGS publications relating to shale please visit the .
Relative topics
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Shale gas in the UK
The UK has a number of sites that have been explored for shale gas deposits.