Natural gas from shale rock promises energy revolution in UK ?  

The BBC has a report on interest in shale gas in the UK - Natural gas from shale rock promises energy revolution.

BP's former chief executive Tony Hayward has described it as a "game changer" in energy supply, the major oil companies are betting millions on its success and it might just turn Blackpool into the new Dallas.

Shale gas seems to answer the oil industry's desire for an accessible energy source perfectly just as other sources are becoming more problematic.

The Deepwater Horizon disaster demonstrated the dangers of searching for oil and gas in ever more extreme environments.

Alaska, Greenland and the South Atlantic may have tempting oil reserves but when something goes wrong in deep water or in an isolated region it can be fearsomely difficult to fix. And this is what is spurring the search for land-based sources of hydrocarbons.

Shale gas exists in large quantities and promising sources lie close to many big energy-intensive cities. ...

In Britain, the shale gas revolution may be just beginning.The geology of Dorset and the Isle of Wight is said to bear comparison with the fruitful Barnett shale of Texas but it is Lancashire that has got the energy companies excited.

Four miles from Blackpool Tower, Cuadrilla Resources has built what looks almost like a replica to drill deep into Bowland shale, geological parent of some of the UK's offshore gas reserves.

It could be three or four years before gas is produced in significant quantities in the UK but the signs are promising. Mark Miller, the general manager of the operations group at Cuadrilla Resources said the gas was there, it was just

a question of whether his men could extract it economically.