Preston New Road site 13 October 2018 Photo: DrillOrDrop
Cuadrilla confirmed this morning it had postponed the start of fracking at its Preston New Road site near Blackpool until Monday.
A company spokesperson said:
“Due to weather conditions yesterday and this morning we will now start pumping on Monday. In high winds we couldn’t use the crane to manoeuvre some equipment into place.”
Today’s start for the first high volume hydraulic fracture in the UK since 2011 had been announced by Cuadrilla yesterday after the lifting of a High Court injunction.
This morning journalists and anti-fracking campaigners gathered outside the site on Preston New Road at Little Plumpton.
Craig Bennett at Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road site, 13 October 2018. Photo: DrillOrDrop
Friends of the Earth chief executive, Craig Bennett, who was at the site this morning, said:
“If a bit of Lancashire weather can stop fracking it raises questions about the suitability of this site. The wind may delay fracking but it won’t blow away the protesters.”
Opponents of the process said they would be back on Monday to mark the start of fracking at the site. This will be the first UK frack of a horizontal shale gas well. The most recent high volume fracturing – also carried out by Cuadrilla in Lancashire – was linked to small earthquakes.
Under the terms of the planning permission, fracking can be carried out at Preston New Road from 8am-9pm Monday-Friday and 9am-1pm on Saturdays.
Cuadrilla is due to carry out about 45 separate fracks on the first horizontal well. Each frack takes about 90 minutes.
Fence at Preston New Road site 13 October 2018 Photo: DrillOrDrop
Protestors at Preston New Road site 13 October 2018 Photo: DrillOrDrop
“Fight goes on”
Anti-fracking campaigners said they would continue the fight against fracking at Preston New Road, despite losing a legal challenge at the High Court this week.
Retired businessman, Bob Dennett, had sought an injunction against fracking after arguing that emergency plans for the Preston New Road site were not adequate to protect local people in an incident.
The injunction was not extended and Mr Dennett was refused permission for a judicial review of Lancashire County Council’s emergency planning. But he said yesterday he would seek to challenge two points in the ruling at the Court of Appeal. DrillOrDrop report
The anti-fracking campaigner, Dame Vivienne Westwood, and her son, Joe Corre, are expected to visit people at the site entrance at about 12 noon on Tuesday 16 October 2018.
Reporting from outside Preston New Road this morning was made possible by donations from individual DrillOrDrop readers
Categories: Industry
DRILL OR DROP? 
It seems nature is fighting back…..
[Image removed over possible copyright issues]
And so is ‘father’…
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/13/top-climate-scientist-james-hansen-attacks-uk-fracking-plans
High winds will cost investors an extra £94,000 for today plus another £94,000 for yesterday.
Nathalie Lieven QC for the company said “any delay would cost £94,000 a day”
Errr maybe the antis should read the wording of the yellow sign which the lady with the hi viz is holding and adopt its content.
We agree for once GBK “Lancashire Voted – No Fracking Here”
Thanks Ruth,
Storm Callum, so sort of a Callumity then?
A bit of a wash out it seems?
It looks like God has a sense of humour after all Kish? Looking for repentant spinners no doubt?
Hmmm, the wrong sort of weather? British Railroad all over again?
Autumn now, it’ll be the wrong sort of leaves next!
[Image removed over possible copyright issues]
All of these protesters are making Cuadrilla more publicized. If they find commercial viable flow rate then it is very good publicity and news coverage. They also start to highlight how pesky and innusance these protesters are.
Or
The bringing of the truth into the main public domain stops the dirty fossil furl industry from hiding in the shadows……
Your plan isn’t working. Despite hearing you have the support of the masses the truth is you only have the local NIMBYs and left wing anti everything types, usually from London or abroad.
You failed to stop us proving we can carry out fracking safely so it’s game over for you lot, the same can be said for Corbyn, he is a has been.
Eh just confirm to DoD readers how the last U.K. frack went particularly seeing as PNR has been postponed because there is a bit of a breeze today.
Check back with me on Monday Crem.
Nope now if you please as you made a statement that you have proved you can frack safely. But even at this moment of typing on Saturday evening no safe fracking has occurred, only the type that cause well deformation.
Just wondering also if fracking is so dangerous and polluted the environment that cause harms to human health then why do they gather around so close at the site to become exposed to sich harms.
Its the other way round BTW, the dangerous polluting fracking operators that cause harm to human health are gathering closely around peaceful unpolluted villages to become exposed to the peace and quiet of peaceful villages.
The protesters just come to throw clean food and water to the inmates?
Yesterday the antis were in court demanding evidence of Cuadrilla’s safe working practices and emergency plans.
Today the same people are mocking the company when they demonstrate their commitment to safe working practices by postponing work due to the hazards on site created by the high winds.
Comments of nature fighting back, wash out and wrong type of leaves shows a complete lack of common sense and knowledge.
Congratulations John, that is precisely why it is being said, because it highlights those very considerations.
It is the very fact that this process is allowed to proceed without releasing the allegedly locked away in a basement emergency procedures, that no one is allowed to see, is the very point of the storm Callum issue.
So a little humour can go a long way, it certainly elicited your response didn’t it? Humour is something sadly lacking from such contributors as you illustrate so well.
I suspect Cuadrilla are more interested in preserving the expensive crane jib from storm damage as the owners have their own safety considerations to preserve their property, rather than any direct concern for the safety of the staff who already have their internal safety regime, again not published, and what about the surrounding populace? That was the prime issue wasn’t it?
On site safety is the HSE and the operators and insurers concern and stops at the fence. but it is the safety of the surrounding populace that is the very point of the injunction issue.
Were the local authorities notified yesterday or today to prepare for these alleged emergency procedures if something went badly wrong?
And what are those emergency procedures and who in the emergency services and the public has been notified of precisely what they are required to do in such an event?
Its a circular argument isnt it? You cant claim one thing whilst simultaneously supporting the fact that no emergency procedures are required to be released to the public. You cant have it both ways.
So it is your precisely your comment that lacks common sense and knowledge, as always the last ditch knee jerk defence mechanism of the industry.
The site does not require a site specific multi agency external emergency plan. That was confirmed yesterday.
Why should a site that may or may not produce gas, need to publish its internal emergency plans, that may well contain sensitive commercial information, when sites that actually produce gas and are of a higher risk, do not?
If local residents require information on how to prepare or what to do during an emergency, be it for the PNR site, the local petrol station or the gas network pipelines etc, the council published and distributed a leaflet on emergency planning in the county and also run a web site that provides the required information.
shale gas site = petrol station/gas pipe – very worrying!
You are scared of petrol stations Sher?
No, but I am of the potential f*£k up at a shale gas site 💥
Duh! Precisely! That is the entire point John! That is why you first comment is null and void. Because Cuadrilla have legislated themselves out of any responsibility to warn the emergency services, the residents and the tax paying public in general of any emergency procedures to protect those very same people from harm, they are only interested in their own safety. Its circular logic, or illogic, that defeats itself, you cannot complain about safety procedures only on site if Cuadrilla have managed to legislate themselves out of any responsibility to the public by their own actions?
People have lost their lives from storm Callum, so emergency procedures for the general public as a whole, not just some industrial invaders that have legislated that they have no responsibility outside their fence, are very important arent they?
And that is why when god, nature, whatever you like to call it, comes up with storm Callum, the issue is serious for everyone, not just a few industrialists behind a fence drilling for black gold and gas. And then we get all this anger about Cuadrilla beeing prevented for a few days over a natural event, “an act of god”, in legal terms, and the place locks itself down, but no similar provision seems to made for an act of man, which is the only thing we can legislate for?
Utter insanity! Corporations are not god, even if they think they are!
The irony is that not only stops them fracking for a few days, but it highlights the very point why such wider emergency procedures must be made available to the wider local public and published and notified in the first place!!
Dont you see how serious that is for everyone, not just for a few get out out jail free industrialists?
Now do you get it??? Gordon S Bennet! its not rocket science! Its like getting gas out of a stone! Oh! Hang on a minute! that is exactly what this is all about isnt it?
Circular arguments about emergency procedures will get the industry no where, whether legislated out of the door or not, either the industry is responsible for the entire community they have squatted in the midst of, or they are responsible for none of it, which, apparently, precisely what they intend to happen.
In the words of your favourite anti anti posters:
Hypocrisy.
End of circular argument, we are not going to have to around and around the same Galoppin’ Perry, No Care Claire in the Community Not So Merry Go Round again and again are we?
So, instead of only 4 hours of fracking Cuadrilla have lured the antis out to catch pneumonia, and will be able to start a full days work on Monday!
Cunning plan-Gold Standard. Hardly cricket-oh, Duckworth Lewis applied in Sri Lanka.
If you hang around martin, they will be back with some more clean food and water for you? I suspect they will be more concerned about catching something from the inmates, such as sociopathy……
Martin only swallows dead herrings and liquid from green bottles……
Ha! A professor Pyke joke Sherwulfe! Well done, Maybe the ice rig and the cement logs of Pykecrete will save the day?
Martin Collyer. The full quota of media, press and private observers were also ” lured out to catch pneumonia” then, which won’t endear Cuadrilla to them at all. As far as the antis are concerned, we’ve endured far worse weather than that experienced today, thank you.
Well said Pauline.
A men/women to that!
So, there are plenty of idiots in the world Pauline. I think we already knew that.
This is a serious business, not some form of entertainment for the antis or the media. Sorry you were “inconvenienced”, but I am certain Cuadrilla are not concerned about that, and are more concerned about the safety of their employees. Whilst you will be scaremongering to the media how unsafe it all is, it will be Cuadrilla demonstrating professionalism and the adoption of the precautionary principle. Which gets the best response? No contest.
Gold standard.
Good for you enduring. And it has achieved????? No movement in public opinion and test fracking authorised and about to commence.
Relegation standard. Sack the board.
Martin Collyer. I agree with you. This is a serious business and not some form of entertainment but it was not the antis who invited the press, the media and their dog to PNR today. Cuadrilla were so keen to shout from the rooftops that they were going to frack. The media, most of them being right wing and pro government were no doubt hoping to have something to crow about today. They’d also be dropping in the odd hint that fracking would stop the dastardly Russians from providing our gas, all 0.5% of it and fracking would make our energy bills cheaper, which even the industry say is not true.
I can assure you we antis were not in the least inconvenienced and will continue to endure for as long as it takes.
Martin Collyer. My remark about the dog was a figure of speech, Have you never heard of that expression? It simply means there were an awful lot of people, with cameras and microphones, at PNR today, who had not been invited by the antis. You know as well as well as I do that the fracking PR machine has been working overtime for a bit of publicity and an opportunity to feed more of it’s lies to the public. A shame rain stopped play.
No movement in public opinion 😂😁😁😁😁
The dog in the ‘photo is an anti dog, Pauline. Uninvited by Cuadrilla.
Would this be the same media who have been reporting the devastation from Storm Callum all day to their viewers today, and readers tomorrow? Hmm. Are they going to then say, but some of us were so inconvenienced because a company decided to be cautious because of Callum and it resulted in us getting two lots of overtime? Shocking! Never mind, they can hunker down in a nice local hotel until Monday spending their expenses. This fracking is already making a difference to the economy.
(The mistake you make is you do not see what the rest of the population see, because you want to ignore that.)
Whilst hunkered, they can read the following in todays press from Claire Perry:
“Other countries don’t have the luxury of their own gas and if we can extract it in a safe way…with companies based in the UK, paying taxes in the UK that create jobs in the process-I just don’t get why people think that’s a bad idea.”
No mention of cheaper, although that could follow if Sterling tanks-but she is unable to suggest that possibility.
‘“Other countries don’t have the luxury of their own gas and if we can extract it in a safe way…with companies based in the UK, paying taxes in the UK that create jobs in the process-I just don’t get why people think that’s a bad idea.”’ – brilliant Perrywinkle, what a great deduction….except:
‘luxury of their own gas’ – a luxury, sure, but this does not mean we waste it; and other countries, which ones? Oh hang on, Hawaii (renewables), Morocco; biggest solar development with reliable storage; Denmark – wind; Scotland; ‘ang on they’ve got gas but have called a halt to shale extraction…..
‘with companies based in the UK, paying taxes in the UK’ – just cos the front end is registered here making losses doesn’t mean the arse end is….
‘UK that create jobs in the process’ – again, check your stats – unless you have MC ‘interpreting them for you, the North Sea employs over 300,000 and renewable sector prospect are 1,000,000….
‘I just don’t get why people think that’s a bad idea’.; – clearly; stand down Claire, you are not fit for purpose!
Just been out enjoying a lovely meal this evening. Couldn’t help wonder what the three inmates would be dining on as I tore into my lovely steak. I guess the antis don’t eat beef either to avoid contributing to methane gases.
Maybe we should employ PIs to watch the activity of an avg anti to see how they fair on the contradiction scale, I’d imagine all self serving Al Gore types similar to Corbyn and Co. If not then I guess they walk everywhere (public transport requires fossil fuel as well as many many construction materials not available from growing naturally!) , wear animal hides and communicate via Chinese whispers.
Ah the sheer hypocrisy never fails to put a smile on my face. [Edited by moderator]
‘Negative words are powerful boomerangs so be careful what you say about people and yourself.’ Mary J. Blige
‘Just been out enjoying a lovely meal this evening’.
I thought pro frackers were against importing anything at all. They must only eat UK sourced foods and live in wattle and daub willow framed shacks. No importing of clothing so a nice English straw and turnip top tunic. My how smart you look. Easy to spot on the road on their native pony and oak framed traps. The few who have not been bankrupted through investing in UK shale may be able to afford an all English Morris marina. And remember don’t cook on gas. It all comes from Russia you know.
You should have a parade. It would be fun to watch.
You could carry banners reading ‘Norwegin gas bad’ ‘Chinese tat’ good.
As you oppose LNG from Qatar it is imperative you trot down the road from PNR and demonstrate against our £5 billion fighter deal with Qatar. In case you don’t understand trade, if you don’t buy their LNG they won’t buy our jets.
http://www.itv.com/news/granada/2017-12-10/lancashire-based-bae-systems-announces-5bn-aircraft-contract/
Goodnight confused few.