North Dee
IGas’s North West acreage has been the centre of much of its activity to date. The productive capacity of the coals has been established by the pilot production site and the ongoing energy export activities at Doe Green. In addition to continuing to assess and model the subsurface, we now obtained planning permission for five production sites in the area ranging from Ellesmere Port in the west (in PEDL 190) to the Trafford Centre in the east (in PEDL 193) and Ince Marshes (PEDL 194). A significant proportion of this acreage is now also considered to contain shale that has a very high potential to be hydrocarbon bearing.
North Dee – PEDLs 184 and 190 The area is located in North Dee, including around Ellesmere Port and Runcorn. The area extends between the tidal estuary of the Dee and the Mersey, with the peninsula of the Wirral (Cheshire) lying between them.
These licences target the unworked CBM potential of the eastern extension of the North Wales coalfields and the south western extension of the Lancashire coalfields. These coals are proven to extend eastwards for at least 20 kilometres in the North Dee area from Buckley to Chester, and southwards from the Wirral to Wrexham.
Geologically the licence area lies on the south eastern margin of the East Irish Sea Basin and on the north western margin of the Permo-Triassic Cheshire basin, forming part of the larger Pennine coal measures basin. The Westphalian Pennine coal measures group of the Pennine basin extends at outcrop or at subcrop across northern England, to the west and east of the Pennines, central England and north Wales. The licence area forms part of the south westerly edge of this basin.
The south western area of PEDL 190 includes the Collinge Borehole drilled by the NCB as part of an old coalfield exploration program. The Collinge borehole demonstrates the presence of multiple thick (>3 feet) coal seams within the Upper Carboniferous and Westphalian coal measures. An NCB depth structure map confirms the regional structure of the coal measures as dipping gently to the south east toward the Cheshire basin.
It is the intention of the partnership to confirm the CBM production potential of these licences by drilling two wells into the application area, contingent upon achieving the required planning permissions; which wells would satisfy the licence commitments which are due by July 2014. Identification of potential well sites is ongoing.