Further delay for Cuadrilla
ONE of the key players in the emerging shale gas industry will have to wait longer to find out if it can frack two sites in Lancashire.
Cuadrilla Resources has been told that Lancashire County Council needs an extra two months to assess all the relevant information before the applications can be handled by its planning committee.
It is the second delay for the group after the council said in July that it was extending the consultation on the proposals by six weeks in view of the size of supporting documents.
In May and June Cuadrilla submitted plans to drill, frack and test the flow of gas at Roseacre Wood north of Kirkham and at a site at Preston New Road, Little Plumpton. The company had hoped to start work on site in the autumn. Now the council says it is pushing back the determination dates of both applications from November to December 31 and January 31.
In a statement it said: “The planners have been working since the applications were received in June to consult with the public and other statutory agencies, and assess the applications, to ensure all the information needed to determine them is put before the Development Control Committee.
“The council has now written to Cuadrilla asking for further time to receive, organise, assess, and present all the relevant information for the application to be determined by the committee. The council is seeking to extend the time agreed to determine the application for the Preston New Road site to 31 December 2014, and to extend the time agreed to determine the Roseacre application to 31 January 2015.”
Cuadrilla is still the only firm to have carried out fracking, albeit under test conditions. The process uses water and chemicals to release gas by fracturing of the shale bed. Environmentalists argue this can cause water and air pollution and Cuadrilla’s test fracking in 2011 was linked to two earthquakes near Blackpool. This led to a moratorium while the Government assessed the safety of the technique.
A Cuadrilla spokesman said it had accepted the council’s request for an extension. The Staffordshire-based group is a joint venture between private equity firm Riverstone and the Australian engineering group AJ Lucas. They each have 41%, with management holding the balance.
