As Fracking Gets Go-Ahead in Northern U.K., U.S.-lnspired Boom Remains Ocean Away

摘要

Four wells are better than none if you are trying to assess whether your country could host the next shale boom-but it is not nearly enough. Cuadrilla Resources Ltd. won the right Oct. 6 to horizontally drill and hydraulically fracture the wells in northern England after a two-and-a-half year battle. If it can prove it won't cause too many traffic problems, it also could get permission to drill another four. While the go-ahead for Cuadrilla is a chink in the armor that has so far stymied attempts to produce shale gas in the U.K., it is nowhere close to what the country needs to replicate U.S. success in exploiting shale gas reserves using fracking, according to analysts and academics.