Driving forward: Shell with shale exploration in Sweden
Shell pushes on with Swedish shale
Anglo-Dutch supermajor Shell has completed drilling Sweden's first shale gas exploration well, but said it would take up to a year before the results are studied.
“It will take up to a year before the results are analysed. We will know then if and how much gas there is in the bedrock," Martin von Arronet, the head of Shell’s Swedish exploration and production unit, told UpstreamOnline.
The company plans to sink two more probes, both of which are scheduled for completion during the summer.
Shell’s plans have faced some opposition from residents and activists who are worried about the environmental impact if shale gas deposits are exploited on a large scale.
However, an appeal to stop activity was quashed by a local court in January, giving Shell the go-ahead to continue drilling.
Shell was awarded two minerals exploration licences, Colonussankan and Hollvikengraven, in Skaane, southern Sweden, in May 2008.
The first well spudded in November last year.
Between them, the licences cover about 256,000 hectares and allow Shell to explore the Alum shale. A further smaller area, Colonussankan 2, which covers about 956 hectares was awarded in May last year.