Demolition equipment at the Tinker Lane site, 10 July 2019. Photo: Used with the owner’s consent
IGas has confirmed that restoration is now underway at its first shale gas site in the East Midlands.
Demolition machinery was photographed today breaking up the surface of the pad at Tinker Lane in north Nottinghamshire.
The company announced in December 2018 that the well had failed to encounter the Bowland shale. In February 2019, the company reported that the well had been plugged and abandoned.
At the start of this month, IGas gave notice to Nottinghamshire County Council of the start of the restoration phase.
An IGas spokesperson said today the site was being returned to its former agricultural use. The work was expected to take 10-12 weeks, the spokesperson said.
Local people told DrillOrDrop they were “all keen to see the site fully restored and returned to farmland as soon as is practicable.”
Drilling began at Tinker Lane on 27 November 2018. In less than three weeks, IGas confirmed the well had not encountered the primary target.
The site, in PEDL200, is operated by IGas in partnership with Ineos Upstream. It is one of two IGas shale gas sites in north Nottinghamshire.
In June 2019, IGas reported “highly encouraging core analysis” from the other site, at Springs Road, Misson. The results confirmed “a significant hydrocarbon resource in the Gainsborough Trough”, the company said. IGas said it was now planning an appraisal programme and pilot development for the area.
DrillOrDrop key facts and timeline for Tinker Lane
DrillOrDrop page of pictures from the development of Tinker Lane
Categories: Industry
DRILL OR DROP? 
As most of the oil and gas already discovered must be left in the ground, this all rather silly isn’t it?
Most of the oil and gas already discovered must be left in the ground? Says who? Dream on….Never mind what has already been discovered, global exploration continues in a big way.
To get an idea of the real world have a look at the latest offshore mobile drilling rig data:
https://ihsmarkit.com/products/offshore-oil-rig-data.html
527 offshore rigs currently working vs 486 last year.
South America is the only region down, probably due to the Petrobras issues.
The leaders by example of Europe – up by 16%
Hmmm.
Obviously no need to be concerned about such things then as Gatwick flights halted and attempts to seize UK tankers in the Gulf. Funny, the rest of the country seem quite concerned Dorkinian when such things happen. Just hope Nice Sir Jim has been working with his spanners to get the Forties Pipeline back on track.
Meanwhile, the oil and gas, that wasn’t there, continues to be extracted at HH. Really rather odd that all those who speculated and then shown to be incorrect have kept rather quiet.
Nice to see Igas finish their work ahead of schedule and reinstating the site immediately. Rather comical that is alongside comments speculating about how sites may not be reinstated. Reality and speculation are usually quite different, but interesting to see the numbers who have difficulty with that concept-hence the growth of fake news. Funny old world..
The target was shale gas in shale rock – a ‘conventional’ hydrocarbon source in which the gas cannot move. If they had encountered the shale they would then have applied for planning permission to frack the well or to drill a new well on the same site.
Any other gas or oil encountered will be in ‘conventional’ rock through which the gas or oil can move and can be extracted elsewhere (but probably not as far as HH) – if there is enough of it and if it can be economically extracted. IGas decided it wasn’t worth it at Tinker Lane. So be it.
As for the timing of the restoration yes it IS nice to see the work being carried out immediately. Sadly many previous UK sites have not. Perhaps, as Mr Collyer is so pleased that Tinker Lane site is being restored so promptly, he is grateful to the anti frackers for encouraging site operators to get on with it.