UK onshore explorer Egdon Resources said Friday it could have 18 Tcf of gas initially in place in shale gas reserves in its licenses within the Bowland-Hodder shale sequence in northern England.
That is equivalent to around 510 billion cubic meters, or some six years of annual UK gas consumption.
However, a gas in place figure is not the same as a volume of gas that can be technically and commercially recovered.
Independent consultants ERC Equipoise estimated a mean gas initially in place figure of 18 Tcf, with a range of 8 to 31 Tcf and a mid-case of 15 Tcf in seven of Egdon's licenses, Egdon said.
"ERCE's estimates of undiscovered GIIP are subject to exploration risk, which may be considerable," the company added.
"No prospective resources have yet been attributed to these properties by Egdon, and further geoscientific data need to be acquired to be able to quantify these resources," it said.
"There is no certainty that it will be commercially viable to produce any portion of the resources," Egdon said.
Although there is considerable interest in UK shale gas potential, there has been very little exploration drilling or fracking testing to date.
The UK government is expected to publish in coming weeks the results of an estimate of the shale potential of southern England, likely to reveal considerable shale oil potential in areas such as the Weald basin.
Media reports have suggested this may be delayed until after European elections due May 22.
The UK government is also reported to be planning changes to trespass law to make shale gas production easier, with a possible announcement in the Queen's Speech on June 3.
