IGas Energy Plc

Our strategy

IGas Energy is operating a pilot project near Warrington, and has planning permission for nine more sites in an around the North West and Staffordshire. It is currently selling electricity generated from CBM at this pilot site – a first for the UK.

The company plans to start full-scale production in 2011 and hopes to be extracting gas from 20-50 sites by 2015.  Each site is planned to consist of 4-6 wells.  Each site is expected to produce between 7 and 20 Bcf over 15 years (gross).

Our Business

IGas Energy is incorporated in the UK and is listed on AIM.

It is a leading developer of Coal Bed Methane (CBM) in the UK producing North Sea quality gas from virgin coal seams. The business focuses on the development of a series of CBM assets in England and Wales with the objective of becoming a significant onshore producer of gas. Development of these assets is taking place in conjunction with IGas Energy’s joint venture partner Nexen.

IGas Energy also has the potential to explore shale, as well as conventional resources. Shale involves extracting gas from rock which contains vast quantities of natural gas. CBM and other unconventional gas is now approximately 50 per cent of the US market and could exceed 10 per cent of the UK’s gas market.

The CBM industry in the UK is in its infancy, but with the continuing decline in natural gas from the North Sea, it is likely to become an increasingly attractive alternative potential source of gas. In the US and Australia, which are ahead of the UK in this area, CBM now accounts for around 7 per cent of their energy use and IGas Energy believes this could also be the case in the UK relatively quickly. The company hopes to be extracting gas from 20-50 sites by 2015.

The company has ownership interests ranging from 20 per cent to 100 per cent in eleven Petroleum and Exploration Development Licences (PEDLs), 100 per cent ownership of two methane drainage licences (MDLs) and 50 per cent ownership of three off shore blocks under one seaward petroleum production licence (SPPL).

Independent analysis by world leading reservoir engineers, DeGolyer and McNaughton, has confirmed that IGas Energy has an estimated net Contingent Recoverable Resource to 807Bcf of gas (2C), equivalent to around 135million barrels of oil. The Contingent Recoverable Resource is derived from a statistical aggregation of Contingent Recoverable Resource ranges calculated on an individual coal seam basis.

IGas energy’s operations are across the north west of England and the North Wales coast. We also have licence interests in Staffordshire and Yorkshire. In total we have interests in licences covering 1,756 square kilometres.

We have now drilled eight wells and have obtained planning permission at fifteen locations, varying from full production sites in brown field locations to assay wells in green field locations, where we have restored the sites at the completion of operations.

Point of Ayr

Point of Ayr is a particularly interesting area for IGas Energy as here we see potential for both conventional and unconventional (from coal and also shale) gas production. In 2009 790km of 2D seismic was reinterperated in the area and an independent report by Equipoise Solutions put the conventional gas potential at up to 37 bcf unrisked within the licence area. A number of leads were identified at the Namurian and Collyhurst levels. Several sites for drilling have been identified onshore in the area and we are looking to progress one of these in 2010. 

Swallowcroft

Swallowcroft in Staffordshire offers a very intensively located resource with a large number of potentially drillable seams within the coal. We have now completed the well at Keele science park in PEDL 56-1 and are carrying out pilot production. In addition in 2009 we acquired PEDL 78-2 and now own 100% of this licence, which we operate. The GIIP on this licence was independently assessed as 78 bcf mid case.

Four oaks

Our Northwest acreage has been the centre of much of our activity to date. The productive capacity of the coals has been established by our pilot production site at Doe Green and the ongoing energy export activities at this site. In addition to continuing to assess and model the subsurface we have now obtained planning permission for five production sites in the area ranging from Ellesmere Port in the west in PEDL 190 to the Trafford Centre in the east within PEDL 193. A significant proportion of this acreage is now also considered to have shale that has a very high potential to be hydrocarbon bearing.

Four oaks – PEDLs 145 and 116 This area is located both north and south of the Mersey, between Liverpool and Warrington.

Parkside

Parkside – PEDL 193 This area is located in South Lancashire, to the southeast of the old Parkside Colliery area of the South Lancashire coalfields and northeast of Warrington. Geologically, the licence is on the southern margin of the Rossendale anticline and on the western margin of the Pennine Axis, and targets the unworked CBM potential of the southern extension of the South Lancashire coalfield which is proven, by prior National Coal Board (“NCB”) boreholes, to extend for at least 5 km to the south east. The oldest rocks present in the area belong to the upper part of the Millstone Grit Series of Upper Carboniferous age and are followed conformably by the Lower and Middle coal measures. These geologic strata consist of alternating shales, sandstones and coal seams. The northern and western area of the licence includes part of the underground workings of the abandoned South Lancashire Coalfield. The workings demonstrate the presence of multiple thick (>3 feet) coal seams within the Upper Carboniferous, Westphalian and Pennine coal measures. Exploration work carried out by the former NCB confirms the regional structure of the Coal Measures as gently dipping to the south (at depths up to and exceeding 4,000 feet) and being broken up by a series of normal faults.

North Dee

North Dee – PEDLs 184 and 190 The area is located in North Dee, including around Ellesmere Port and Runcorn. The area extends between the tidal estuary of the Dee and the Mersey, with the peninsula of the Wirral (Cheshire) lying between them.

These licences target the unworked CBM potential of the eastern extension of the North Wales coalfields and the south western extension of the Lancashire coalfields. These coals are proven to extend eastwards for at least 20 kilometres in the North Dee area from Buckley to Chester, and southwards from the Wirral to Wrexham.

Drax

The Drax area is located in Yorkshire, around 15 miles south and east of York itself. The licence is PEDL 92-1.

Geologically, the area under licence is formed by strata of Carboniferous and Permo-Triassic age, gently dipping to the south and south-east. Prior mining to the south and west of the area focused on Westphalian B coals, which, from the available borehole data, are at depths of approximately 650 feet to 3,000 feet below surface within PEDL 92. Although the area had been licensed historically for CBM exploration, no boreholes had been drilled on the licence for this purpose prior to IGas Energy acquiring the acreage.

A well was spudded at Mill Farm in August 2007 and drilled to a depth of 2,718 feet. This well was used to log and core the coal sequence. The drilling of this well fulfilled the licence commitments and the licence is now in its second term.

CLICK HERE for further information

Updated from company website 15/12/11