Cuadrilla’s fracked shale gas wells in Lancashire should be decommissioned in six months. But the company’s deadline depends on the availability of a rig.
Opponents of fracking at the site at Preston New Road, near Blackpool, have said they are concerned about the potential for delay and have pledged to monitor activity closely.
The timetable emerged in correspondence between local people and planners at Lancashire County Council.
This follows an order in August 2023 from the industry regulator, North Sea Transition Authority. It instructed Cuadrilla to plug and abandon the UK’s only fracked horizontal shale gas wells.
A Lancashire County Council spokesman confirmed the decommissioning timetable:
“For guidance, we understand that Cuadrilla is aiming to complete work on plugging and abandoning the two bore holes at Preston New Road by March 31, 2024, subject to the availability of a rig.
“However, as part of the process, it will be necessary for the sealed wells to be monitored over a period of time following this. Similarly, restoration of the land will also take some time but is aimed to be complete by June 30, 2025.”
“For guidance, all planning authorities in England can serve an enforcement notice where there is reason to believe conditions have been breached, on the proviso that further action such as court proceedings could potentially follow in any cases where the requirements of an enforcement notice are not complied with.”
Miranda Cox, spokesperson for Frack Free Lancashire, said:
“Recent communication with Lancashire County Council has indicated that the timetable would be subject to the availability of a rig.
“This is a cause for concern, as it introduces the potential for flexibility and delay.
“We would like reassurances that Lancashire County Council will definitely take enforcement action if required.
“Sadly our faith in regulators has been damaged over the past decade and until Cuadrilla finally clear up and leave we will be monitoring activity closely.”
Fracking the Preston New Road wells in 2018 and 2019 caused earthquakes, some of which were felt across the local area. The site has been largely mothballed since August 2019. A moratorium on fracking in England was introduced in November 2019 and remains in place.
DRILL OR DROP? 
Yes, the delivery of a rig may be a problem. After all, the protestors- if awake- might stop it arriving!
Goodness, equipment is required and has to be scheduled. Shock/horror.
I drive past a house building site most mornings. The house is now complete, then a mini digger needed to be obtained to landscape the garden and tidy up around the drive.
It doesn’t take much to excite a few.
Absurd for Cuadrilla to claim difficulty getting a rig . They got a rig to frack without a problem? They have consistently breached planning agreements it’s time to enforce this timetable !! The Council must insist that Cuadrilla finally restore PNR to its original agricultural landscape . The Community deserves that at least !
Except, Pat-they haven’t!
Interesting there are NO comments at all about making sure that a neat and effective re-instatement is achieved.
(Maybe the spare rigs have been sent over to USA to frack for gas there, for USA to then export to UK?? LOL)
That’s a strange comment, Martin. Are you now finally admitting that Cuadrilla are incompetent and likely to cut corners in the reinstatement of the site? Don’t worry. We’ll be watching them.
Why strange, Pauline? Firstly it is strange someone should suggest Cuadrilla have stated something they have not-but par for the course. Second, there has been NO comment previously that the key objective should be that a proper job with proper equipment is achieved. [Edited by moderator]
I’m at a loss to understand your comments here. They make no sense. Who is suggesting Cuadrilla have stated something they have not. Just what are the supposed to have stated? And please explain who it is you are accusing of speculation and fabrication?
Sorry your understanding is a difficulty, Pauline.
Opponents have claimed concern that obtaining a rig might POTENTIALLY be the case. It may be, it may not. If I was to speculate, I would suggest that evidence currently would point towards there being a high demand for rigs this winter. It should not be beyond the ability of LCC to determine what is the case at the time. In most walks of life there are difficulties in supply chains currently. Don’t get me started on that, but anyone looking to obtain most things is well aware of it.
In other words, in the absence of anything to the contrary, then speculation has morphed into fact to suit the anti agenda. A surprise? Not really, as expected. Your own speculation about what Cuadrilla might have achieved is simply that, unless you claim to have a more superior crystal ball than anyone else. That would be well received in Blackpool, but not by myself and not supported by history of drilling for oil and gas in UK or elsewhere eg. it took a long time to manage any success in N.Sea but it happened. (By the way-the Windfall Tax would not have reduced UK household energy bills if that had not happened!)
I would not go too far along the world price nonsense path, Pauline. You may find along that path the inconvenient decline in world oil prices as USA developed fracking! Your fellow travelers have tried to cover that one up but it is a bit too obvious to displace. OPEC threw $billions at attempting to do so with no success, so good luck trying to achieve what that could not, and USA still does NOT pay the mythical world price for gas. See importers v exporters and processed product to export to get more acquainted with such stuff.
I have no problem, Pauline, with people having a different view to myself but when they start to divert away from the facts so readily, then it makes me question whether the issue is their knowledge of the facts or just their willingness to create a fake picture. Their choice to tread either path but not my choice to accept.
I will accept USA gas this winter Pauline but I will know who to blame for my £ and the £s of all other UK citizens being devalued as a result and what that will do to UK cost of living plus UK taxation. Yes, it is partially UK politicians, but also the siren voices who have enticed them onto the rocks, who then try and divert blame to the UK politicians. Not new.
That is my understanding, Pauline. Hope it helps.
I’m not sure if you’ve misunderstood the situation , but it’s not LCC who have speculated there may be a problem with obtaining a rig. From our correspondence with LCC, we were told it’s Cuadrilla themselves who have mentioned that. Since they’ve had since at least 1st December 2022 to organise their equipment, postponing commencement of work which should have begun at the beginning of September for a further 3 months and then basing that schedule on the availability of a rig seems incompetent to say the least. 12 months to obtain a rig does sound excessive. In the meantime, AJ Lucas shareholders are being fed a story that Francis Egan is still lobbying the government to get the moratorium lifted. Desperate delaying tactics by the company and meanwhile the shares have fallen to practically zero. I suppose you’ll be happy if the taxpayers end up paying for reinstatement whilst you defend them.
Cuadrilla applied to LCC for a two year extension to their order for plugging and restoration of the site on 1st December 2022. They now say they will commence work in January 2024 subject to obtaining a rig. Thirteen months is more than long enough to arrange the hire of a rig for a competent company. And don’t worry about protestors. The only ones blocking the restoration of this site are Cuadrilla themselves, still keeping their shareholders hanging on with the vain hope that another Liz Truss/ Rees Mogg may emerge to save them.
By closing this site we’re depriving the British public of 3million to 8 million scf per day of gas which could keep pensioners warm this winter. This was the flow rate demonstrated by Cuadrilla. To shut it down because it broached the ridiculously low seismic limit of 0.5 is shocking. This is equivalent to a large truck rolling past. If we imposed this limit on construction sites there would be no building work in the UK. I believe people are waking up to this. The recent scandal of scientific journal Nature refusing to publish scientific papers unless they followed the green mantra is setting alarm bells ringing.
Cuadrilla had from 2011 to 2019 to produce gas in the Fylde, with the government and police falling over backwards to assist them, as George Osborne said, ‘ give them every ask, yet still they produced nothing. If pensioners needed to rely on Cuadrilla to keep them warm they would be sadly disappointed. Not forgetting that even if they had managed to produce a whiff or two of gas it would have been sold on the global market at market prices.
Well Pauline[Edited by moderator] How do you think the Windfall Tax was levied on UK gas and oil and then redistributed to UK energy customers???
Plus, the price of LNG is quite different to piped, local gas. That is why when gas in Europe was $47 it was $7 in USA. Which was the global market? For USA it was $7 for Europe $47-so, no “global” market. Seems you have an ability to forget the reality and remember the fiction .However, it is quite simple to check July 2022 prices for gas, and quite easy to check the Windfall Tax and quite easy to check how many £billions were allocated to UK energy bill payers last winter.
If you want to change history, you really need to allow a bit more water under the bridge first.
So, now the UK is signing up long term contracts (eg. Centrica) for US gas to be converted to LNG and shipped to UK. Whether the antis or the Government will accept the responsibility doesn’t really matter, but one if not both will have to.
“Seems you have an ability to forget the reality and remember the fiction .” Oh, the irony!
The reality is that the global heating we are experiencing largely as a result of, and now consciously furthered and exacerbated by the exploitation of FFs, is, in the opinion of scientists, edging closer to the limits of human survivability.
In a recent Guardian article, September 8th., ‘Deadly humid heatwaves to spread rapidly as climate warms -study’
Carter Powis of Oxford talking of wet-bulb temperature opines “ Everything is OK until it’s not and there are limits to what the human body can tolerate when it comes to heat…..” “ Things will keep on chugging along hunky -dory until we pass those limits and then very abruptly, they will not be OK. Suddenly, you’ll see an acceleration in mortality……………we need to (reduce) emissions.”
Colin Raymond of UCLA on the same subject believes that “Many areas are only slightly below the non-compensable heat level now, so as the planet continues to warm, the total increase in exposure will be exponential.”
Such heatwaves near or above the non-compensable limit should be treated as life-threatening disasters, he asserts.
Our own Nero fiddles happily away as the planet, in reality, burns!
I think you’d find it helpful to read a bit more widely. There are some horrible sites out there peddling propaganda which don’t stand up to scrutiny. The Guardian and the BBC are two prime examples. As a retired Engineer I have the time to investigate for myself where the truth lies. For example, I was shocked to read that a scientific journal (Nature) was encouraging scientists to omit key pieces of data if they didn’t strictly follow the green mantra. Shutting down debate is not what science is about. https://www.turbulenttimes.co.uk/news/front-page/climate-change-the-distortion-of-science/
The decisions our government are making are so critically expensive for our future they need to be debated properly.
Good to see the Guardian reader is following their advice:
“If you want to live a life rich in meaning, first you must learn to do nothing”.
I see your plastic keyboard allows you to do that, 1710, whilst repeating more of their content.
For ancient fiddling, see current faffing.
Thanks for your usual intelligent response which some might consider diversionary. Sorry the meaning escaped you in its entirety, but congratulations on identifying the material from which my keyboard is constructed. Nothing gets past you, Martin, and you are clearly a master of the content-free post.
No meaning escaped me, 1720. Meaningless. You quote something from the Guardian that you feel has meaning, yet find something else from the same source does not.
When the something must be done crowd come up with something that adds up and may work, then it may have some meaning. Until then, I refer you to the meaning in the sound words of the late Chief Scientific Officer. You then “intelligently” decided you could create the ultimate diversion of suggesting he would have had an after death conversion and completely changed his views! As intelligent as suggesting Martin Luther King would have decided white supremacy was for him, if he had lived longer.
You obviously have decided that your demand does not create a supply, 1720. Either that, or you feel you are exempt. If you can’t even get to grips with that I suggest you just ask for forgiveness rather than attempt to deflect your sins. Sorry, I do not feel guilty for my own consumption. I quite enjoy the prospect of a life expectancy double what it was pre the widespread use of oil and gas and have no desire to revert to a yurt, expand the output of leeches and do away with artificial fertilizers to help feed a global population moving to 10B-especially when other “scientists” have “intelligently” decided to use wheat and maize to plonk into vehicle fuel tanks to help climate change, that other “scientists” then find is not the case. Meanwhile, the consumer pays more for their food, and those who can’t afford to, well, they risk starvation and/or hypothermia.
I would suggest you should concentrate more on your own fiddling, 1720.
I sympathise with Pauline’s “ I’m at a loss to understand your comments here. ” This is power for the course in discussions with Martin where figures, useful only for those persons interested in how best and how quickly to deprive humanity of a future, jostle for attention with badly expressed and bland assertions which themselves seek only to confuse, distract and misinform those who hope and work for better, assertions which take refuge and support in perverting the arguments of others and pride in their own guiltlessness.
The fallacies inherent in Martin’s first paragraph need no highlighting other than to observe that the Guardian was reporting on an article in the journal Science Advances – not at all meaningless. His own quotation might well have meaning as an aphorism had Martin chosen to reveal the context. And that, as they say, is that.
[Edited by moderator]
For some more of what Martin will consider meaningless, the following article is worth a read. Some few will, of course, discount the message because the messenger’s dedication to truthful and profit-free reporting does not suit, for whatever reason.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/13/earth-well-outside-safe-operating-space-for-humanity-scientists-find