146
39
th
Annual Report
746 in 2012, including 132 shale oil wells and 14 shale gas wells
i
.
Within the same timeframe, Americas Petrogas announced that
drilling has commenced on ALL.x-1 shale oil exploration well on
the Los Toldos I block (398 sq km) located in the Neuquen Basin
ii
.
Efforts paid off soon as YPF discovered unconventional oil and gas
in five wells in Chubut and Neuquen regions. This is expected to
ease the company
’
s production decline rate, and rise it again in 2013.
According to the company, three wells are located in Vaca Muerta
Basin, which means that source rocks in Chubut can be -in turn-
considered as an oil region. The other two well discovered shale
gas
iii
.
In the
United Kingdom
, IGas Energy PLC. said it has logged a
number of potentially gas- productive zones in about 305 m of shale
encountered at its Ince Marshes onshore well in PEDL 190 south
of Liverpool. The well was cored and suspended waiting for the
samples to be interpreted. Predrill independent analysis suggested
initial gas in place in the shale of as much as 4.6 trillion cubic feet in
the area
iv
.
Due to the insatiable appetite for energy, the government of the
UK said that it will permit the resumption of shale gas exploration,
including horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, which are
essential to the economics of shale development. The UK’s energy
and climate change secretary, said that the government will allow
shale development to resume, but that any fracturing activity would
be subject to new controls aimed at mitigating the risk of seismic
i
Bloomberg Business, 6/6/2012
ii
Oil Voice, 19/7/2012
iii
South Atlantic News Agency, 31/8/2012
iv
Oil and Gas Journal, 28/1/2012
