In an interview of 19th March 2019 on CORE TV channel, IGas CEO Stephen Bowler (SB) talks about Tinker Lane and Springs Road. SB explains that drilling the Tinker lane well was all about fulfilling the contractual commitment (by way of the Petroleum Exploration and Development Licence). Having only 2D seismic data (Editor: from 1980’s) “IGas were never going to go back to flow that well.” The outcomes at Tinker Lane were:
Drilling speeds better than hoped.
Took some sidewall cores (not full cores) and some preliminary data looked encouraging.
More data expected in due course.
Tinker lane well is now officially abandoned and it will be restored to agricultural land.
Of Springs Road, a much deeper well to 3,500 metres, three targets of which 2 had been encountered. Taken 250 metres of core (later said 150 metres). The drilling speed had surpassed even that of Tinker Lane and were now drilling to a deeper interval. IGas expecting an initial indication from laboratory testing of the cores in Q2 and full analysis in Q3. The factors that will be of importance are rock properties, gas content and fracture characteristics. Will the gas flow? Drilling costs and gas price. In a couple of months time a second vertical well will be drilled with a 1,500 horizontal section off it. IGas might then look for regulatory/planning approvals to frack the well.
SB says that the second Springs Road well is also an exploratory well and implied that the fracking investigation would be undertaken within the existing Traffic Light System. For commercial development the .5 limit is prohibitive. IGas and others are looking to the Oil and Gas authority to raise the levels.
SB envisages a single pad might supply enough gas for half a million homes and that 60 pads might deliver a meaningful quantity of gas. Editor comment: 60 pads with 12-14 wells per pad (INEOS estimates) thus 720 – 840 wells, presumably across IGas licence area in the East Midlands.
A final comment from SB on the “Eureka” calls from INEOS on the initial findings at Tinker Lane. SB said that he was more conservative, but said that they were correct! The Interviewer also stated during the interview that the gas show was from the Millstone Grit interval and not from shale. This was not contradicted by SB.