Just one shale formation could produce 25% of the UK’s oil. Isn’t this better than financing Russia or Saudi Arabia?
The so-called Gatwick Gusher, a shale basin in the United Kingdom, could add as much as $74 billion to the nation’s economy, a study finds.
U.K. Oil & Gas Investments commissioned Ernst & Young to examine the future potential of oil production from the Weald shale basin.
“Assuming it can be extracted from a development site at the volumes projected by U.K. Oil & Gas, has the potential to generate significant economic value to the U.K. economy,” the report read.
Oil & Gas U.K., the industry’s lobbying group, said the North Sea oil sector is in for a long period of decline, with less than $1.4 billion in new spending expected in 2016. Inland shale, meanwhile, has the potential to add between $10 billion and $74.6 billion to the British economy in gross value, the commissioned report said.
Operators are working to assess the potential in the shale area by testing the Horse Hill-1 oil discovery. Preliminary estimates made by the company last year put the entire Horse Hill reserve total as high as 100 billion barrels of oil. If its full potential is reached, the future production from the area could provide as much as a quarter of the nation’s total oil demand over its lifespan, based on 2014 demand levels.
sunshine hours 
100 billion barrels = 82169 days of supplying 100% of the UK’s oil needs (based on 201 use rates)
82169 days = 225 YEARS
If 100B bbls is supposed to supply only 25% of the UK’s oil demand over the life of the oil field, that would translate to a projection of their needs 900 years into the future. By then I would hope that we’ve made technological advances into more efficient fuels and will have colonized both the moon and Mars.
Oooh, can’t be having that!
Cameron (more importantly Sam Cam) and Osborn will lose their seats on the EUSSR trough-snouter gravy train if we end up with the independence that such energy reserves will bring.
Plus, don’t forget that under ongoing EUSSR legislation all such natural resources are to be considered EUSSR property and brought under EUSSR control in the near future so unless we get out we won’t see a barrel of it anyway.