(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors) The UK's embryonic shale gas industry received welcome news on Thursday as the operator of the huge Grangemouth refinery on the Firth of Forth unveiled a major investment.
Privately-owned Ineos is set to invest £640mln into exploration for the unconventional energy source.
Shale has been heralded as the UK's next vital energy source though there are environmental concerns due to the method of 'fracking' used in its extraction.
In the latest twist to the emerging story in the UK multinational chemical group Ineos which operates Grangemouth in a joint venture has snapped up 729 square miles of fracking exploration licences in central Scotland.
It has also bought the licence for shale gas exploration across a 329sq km area around its Grangemouth power plant.
Igas () - a pioneer in the field - saw shares rise on the day.
Recently it upgraded estimates for its projects in northern England.
Between 34 and 263 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas is now estimated within the group’s acreage with 147tcf deemed ‘most likely’.
Recently it spudded a vertical well at Ellesmere Port as part of a programme to evaluate its clutch of licences in the North-West.
Meanwhile (LON:CNLR) is another group in the unconventional gas arena but this time UCG or "underground coal gasification".
Its Kincardine UCG licence sits in the Firth of Forth a stone’s throw from Grangemouth and recently it unveiled a maiden resource for the site.
The technology sees a borehole inserted into the coal seam below the seabed which is then ignited with the resulting gas piped ashore to local plants.
Cluff's maiden estimate represented the equivalent of 1.4 billion cubic feet (BCF) of natural gas-in-place.
In other news it may be time () changed its name. For its next major project it is swapping the warm waters off Morocco for the frozen wastes of America’s most northerly state.
An update on Thursday revealed it has made a successful bid for almost 87000 net acres in the Alaska North Slope area-wide sale.
It will be partnered on Project Icewine with Burgundy Xploration which was the bid agent for the property and will be carried on the first US$2mln spent on the property.
() has farmed out 80% of its Midelton/East Kinsale gas prospect to Malaysian stateoil company Petronas.
Under the deal Petronas subsidiary PSE Kinsale Energy will fund the costs of one well on Midelton/East Kinsale with Lansdowne having a free carry.
The Irish group's share of the costs up to US$2.5mln of any testing programme will also be funded by PSE Kinsale which will take over as operator of the licence once Irish government approval comes through.
Elsewhere () is teaming up with a Dubai registered business to target opportunities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
As part of the deal with Gulfsands has also secured a US$20 million convertible loanfacility.
Arawak will provide the financing for acquisition and development of projects with the pair targeting “existing oil and gas reserves requiring development or re-development”.
Gulfsands which already has assets in Syria Tunisia and Morocco will operate these new projects and own 30%.
() is now on the cusp of becoming a 'full cycle' exploration and production (E&P) firm reckons City broker .
Analyst Brian Gallagher notes that with the signing of a gas sales agreement earlier this year the group offers the investor material cash flows and high-impact exploration.
In its third quarter numbers this week the East Africa-focused group said the next three to six months should be transformational.
The AIM firm holds a 31.9% stake in the Mnazi Bay gas project in Tanzania. Its partners are operator Maurel et Prom with around 48% and the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corp has the remaining 20%.
() has its sights set on exploiting and monetising 'very significant' gas resources in the Kurdistan region of Iraq chief executive Tony Hayward told Proactive in an exclusive interview this week.
The company boss said having ramped up its oil production this was the next step for the company and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
"About a year ago they (the regional gov't) signed a gas sales agreement with Turkey which called for 4 Bcma (billion cubic meters per annum) of gas exported to Turkey in 2018 10 in 2020 with the option to go to 20 in 2025 if the gas resource was there. It looks like the gas resource will be there."
It comes after last week the firm concluded a deal to develop the Miran and Bina Bawi fields following a US$150mln deal to buy 36% of the latter it doesn't own.
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