Cuadrilla granted a year to prove fracking process is safe

Preston-based energy company Cuadrilla Resources has won a ‘stay of execution’ at its two shale gas exploration wells in Little Plumpton, Lancashire.

The company had been ordered by the UK regulator, the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), to permanently plug the Preston New Road wells by the end of June this year.

It followed a magnitude 2.9 earthquake in the area around the wells, near Blackpool, and sustained public protests, which led to the Government imposing a moratorium on the process, known as fracking, in August 2019.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said no further consents for fracking would be granted until the industry could “reliably predict and control tremors” linked to the process.

A similar moratorium on fracking was introduced in November 2011 following tremors, but only lasted a year.

But the sharp rise in wholesale gas prices, worsened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has led to calls for a U-turn from Cuadrilla bosses who claim fracking can provide a secure source of energy for the UK.

On Monday this week the firm applied for the order to plug the wells to be overturned, and today the NSTA announced Cuadrilla now has until June 2023 to evaluate the productive options for its wells, which will now be temporarily plugged and suspended.

The two wells are the only horizontal wells drilled and hydraulically fractured (fracked) into UK shale rock.

They were drilled to vertical depths of approximately 2.25km and onwards horizontally for a further 0.75km each through the shale.

Testing confirmed the presence of a very high quality natural gas resource, said Cuadrilla.

Francis Egan, Cuadrilla CEO, welcomed the NSTA’s decision. He said: “It is widely acknowledged that natural gas will continue to play a key role in UK energy supply for many decades to come, even as the country transitions to a net zero CO2 economy.

“We remain convinced that the Bowland shale gas resource has the potential to be a very significant contributor to UK energy supply and, in particular, a source of cost effective fuel for heating UK homes and businesses.”

He added: “Given the rapid decline in indigenous North Sea gas production and the ongoing UK gas price and supply crises we consider that the billions of pounds being spent annually on importing expensive gas from the Middle East, the US and elsewhere might be better directed, in part at least, on developing what is recognised to be a substantial domestic shale gas resource.

“The high price, lack of security and higher CO2 emissions of gas imports have all been amply demonstrated and are being felt by consumers in the ongoing gas price crisis. Developing the UK’s domestic gas resource onshore would help provide energy security, create a significant number of new jobs in the North of England and provide substantial tax revenues.”

He called on the Government to “urgently reverse its decision to impose a moratorium on shale gas”.