Mr. Michael Hanrahan:

There is a body of evidence, but it is limited. There are five wells in the north west that were drilled for conventional gas exploration purposes. They were targeting thin sand intervals and vertical wells. The most recent work was done by Evergreen Resources in 2000. This is the first time work has been done to evaluate shale gas potential in the area. The seismic data are very old and their quality is questionable. The data need reprocessing work and may even need a new acquisition to aid in the interpretation and help to evaluate the potential involved. As in the case of offshore exploration, the only time the Department would evaluate the size of a resource and the potential recoverable oil or gas is when the exploration and appraisal work has been done. To date no exploration work has been done to assess shale gas potential.