British shale gas firm Cuadrilla says the moratorium on its industry must urgently be lifted if the UK is serious about energy security.
Cuadrilla’s chief executive Francis Egan made a statement as the clock ticks down on the shale gas firm’s suspended wells in Lancashire, which have to be plugged and abandoned by June – which means they would need to be cemented closed in the imminent future.
Last week, against a backdrop of the energy price crisis and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, comments from both Prime Minister Boris Johnson and business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng appeared to favour the shale industry, which is under moratorium due to scrutiny over fracking.
Since then, however, Cuadrilla’s Egan says the company has not seen any further traction with the authorities.
“Unfortunately the Government is failing to match its rhetoric with action,” Egan said.
“Since Wednesday BEIS and the OGA have been repeatedly contacted by and on behalf of Cuadrilla to discuss how to give practical effect to the Prime Minister and Secretary of State’s statements.
“The only clear and unambiguous response from these verbal and written contacts has been verbal confirmation from the OGA that the 30th June remains the legal deadline to plug both wells with cement. It is clear that OGA will be in no position to reverse that until it receives a clear instruction from the Business Department.”
He added: “If the Prime Minister and Secretary of State’s words are to count, then officials must be instructed to stop dragging their heels and frustrating the Government’s wishes.”
“If the words from Downing Street and the House of Commons are to have any practical meaning I urgently request the Business Department and the OGA to formally withdraw their instruction to plug the wells.
“They should also put sensible protections in place to ensure that companies like Cuadrilla and others aren’t forced to suffer the risk and financial cost of operating in a position where a Government can keep changing its mind and require wells to be cemented whilst they are eminently useful.”
Cuadrilla, a privately-held company, has led the UK shale gas sector which had largely stalled in recent years as projects failed to secure planning and regulatory approval.
The projects, located mostly in the North West of England, advanced sufficiently for the company and the British Geological Society to envisage decades' worth of supply, but, couldn’t advance so much for the gas to be tested commercially.
Whilst Cuadrilla had the most advanced projects London Stock Exchange-listed IGas and Egdon amassed material prospective acreage across Cheshire, Lancashire and Lincolnshire.
IGas has a portfolio of six licences across the east midlands, in a geological area known as the Gainsborough Trough.
Egdon, meanwhile, retains some 614 square kilometres under licence in its unconventional resources portfolio which focuses on what it describes as the ‘potentially world class’ Gainsborough shale.