Coal Gas in Wales - A boost for Welsh Rugby?

Centrica Energy Upstream (CEU) has plans to develop Coal Bed Methane (CBM) using Petroleum and Exploration Development Licences (PEDL’s) in South Wales. Feasibility studies are already underway and planning permission for a number of well-sites is currently being sought.

The next steps of the project will be exploration drilling using vertical wells and site appraisal with a mind to employ horizontal drilling techniques. A programme of work is being developed and it is anticipated that this will consist of a combination of drilled and cored holes followed by mini-pilot tests at some of these well-sites.

Coal Bed Methane is a form of natural gas which, in recent decades, has become an important source of energy in the United States, Canada, and other countries. In Australia CBM has formed the basis of a new major gas industry.
Could Centrica’s plans see the growth of a major gas industry in Wales? Could we see the rebirth of mining towns? More importantly, might we see a resurgence in Welsh rugby (my name is John GWILYM Rowlands)?
The high prices of natural gas are making wells for resources such as CBM financially viable and it will be interesting to see what results Centrica obtain.
Drilling for CBM is not unexplored in Wales; back in 2008 an Australian energy company announced it had completed test drilling in a field in the Llynfi Valley near Bridgend. Two further sites also revealed huge quantities of high-quality CBM gas, which could be piped out and used to help ease Britain's growing energy crisis.
In the area that Eden Energy has explored - a block of 230 square kilometres - it is believed there may be enough CBM to meet 5% of the whole of the UK's energy need for a year. Eden, who are working with two British companies, say there may be four or five more blocks in Wales alone that could provide a similar amount of energy, or even more.
So, it seems the gas that once attempted to blow up my great-grandfather (and probably killed a few of his canaries) may, some years later, cause an economic boom in South Wales and rekindle the Energy industry there. Furthermore, it might redevelop some of the more traditional Welsh industries such as steel and iron. Certainly, the production of CBM in Wales will go some way to relieve the UK energy deficit.