According to estimates, the UK Treasury could rake in as much as £80billion windfall-form the Shale gas fracking projects in the country.

British Gas owner Centrica has said that it is acquiring a 25 per cent stake in the Bowland project in the North West. Cuadrilla is the other firm involved in the project involving 450 square miles of Lancashire between Blackpool and Preston that could have about 200trillion cubic feet of shale gas as reserves.

The government has given its approval to Cuadrilla, which had to stop its fracking based extraction after two small earthquakes were reported. The Prime Minister has said that the gas from shale gas extraction has helped bring a boom in production the US and resulted in a fall in process. He said that the same could be possible in the UK.

The approval was given with a set of conditions aimed at minimizing the risk from extraction activities. Fracking involves creating little explosions underground and then flooding with water and chemicals to obtain gas trapped in shale rocks.

The drilling is expected to begin at six locations during the next few years from 2014.