Abstract The Elswick Field is located within Exploration Licence EXL 269a (Cuadrilla Resources Ltd is the operator) on the Fylde peninsula, West Lancashire, UK. It is the first producing onshore gas field to be developed by hydraulic fracture stimulation in the region. Production from the single well field started in 1996 and has produced over 0.5 bcf for onsite electricity generation. Geologically, the field lies within a Tertiary domal structure within the Elswick Graben, Bowland Basin. The reservoir is the Permian Collyhurst Sandstone Formation: tight, low-porosity fluvial desert sandstones, alluvial fan conglomerates and argillaceous sandstones. The reservoir quality is primarily controlled by depositional processes further reduced by diagenesis. Depth to the reservoir is 3331 ft TVDSS with the gas–water contact at 3400 ft TVDSS and with a net pay thickness of 38 ft.

Abstract A new model of compression in the Upper Triassic overlying the Rhyl Field has been developed for the Keys Basin, Irish Sea. This paper highlights the significance of the overburden velocity model in revealing the true structure of the field. The advent of 3D seismic and pre-stack depth migration has improved the interpreter's knowledge of complex velocity fields, such as shallow channels, salt bodies and volcanic intrusions. The huge leaps in processing power and migration algorithms have advanced the understanding of many anomalous features, but at a price: seismic imaging has always been a balance of quality against time and cost. As surveys get bigger and velocity analyses become more automated, quality control of the basic geological assumptions becomes an even more critical factor in the processing of seismic data and in the interpretation of structure. However, without knowledge of both regional and local geology, many features in the subsurface can be processed out of the seismic by relying too heavily on processing algorithms to image the structural model. Regrettably, without an integrated approach, this sometimes results in basic geological principles taking second place to technology and has contributed to hiding the structure of the Rhyl Field until recently.

Abstract This book charts the stratigraphical distribution of ostracods in the Cambrian to Pleistocene deposits of Britain and outlines their utility for dating and correlating rock sequences, as well as indicating aspects of their palaeoenvironmental and palaeogeographical significance. These small bivalved crustaceans are the most abundant arthropods in the fossil record. Indeed, the stratigraphy of Britain, which embraces many type-sequences, provides a particularly rich and full record of them, from at least the basal Ordovician, and from the British Cambrian there is a biostratigraphy based on their ‘relatives’, the bradoriids and phosphatocopids. Ostracod distributions demonstrate the ecological success story of the group, occupying as they do marine, non-marine and even ‘terrestrial’ habitats. Written by current specialists in the field, this book is an authoritative account and will be welcomed by all micropalaeontologists and applied geologists in the industrial and academic world alike. It is richly illustrated with over 80 plates of electron micrographs and specially drawn maps, diagrams and range-charts.

Abstract Why an atlas of the Carboniferous in northern England? There can hardly be a more researched system in the whole of the British Isles, given its widespread distribution at outcrop and annual appearances in numerous PhD theses (including those of the authors). But perhaps all we really know about the Carboniferous is no more than skimming the surface. In this atlas, using modern multifold seismic and borehole data collected by the oil industry in its search for petroleum accumulations, we can start to look beyond the surface exposures and gain some new insights into the structure and stratigraphy of the subsurface (and surface) Carboniferous. The unique appeal of this atlas of seismic sections is that it is based on data from onshore UK. Although these lines were originally shot as small segments targeting individual prospects and trends, they have been spliced together to produce a series of basin-scale regional lines which should be of value to academic researchers and industry alike. With this atlas, we can walk the seismic lines at outcrop and in many cases compare exposure to both the seismic data and associated palaeofacies maps.