Cuadrilla to go all in on British shale

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LONDON, March 13 (UPI) -- Cuadrilla Resources aims to take advantage of early opportunities in the shale energy potential in the United Kingdom, company Chairman John Browne said.

Browne told The Guardian newspaper in London that Cuadrilla wasn't shy about spending big on shale opportunities in the country.

"We will finance whatever it takes," he was quoted as saying.

London last year lifted a ban on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, of shale natural gas resources in light of new risk controls based on a "traffic light" system. Fracking operations were suspended after Cuadrilla in 2011 reported minor tremors associated with natural gas operations in the country.

Cuadrilla said in a statement that it suspected there was a layer of gas about 1-mile thick under Lancashire. The British Geological Survey in a 2010 study said the shale gas reserve potential could be 5.3 trillion cubic feet.

Shale exploration is controversial because of environmental threats from chemicals used in the process. Browne said the British government has the opportunity to regulate the development "very well."

"Onshore (gas) has plenty of regulators in the U.K.," he said. "There is a complexity, which we are all used to but (it) should be simplified."