People living near Cuadrilla’s mothballed fracking site in Lancashire say they are disappointed about the lack of progress on plugging and abandoning the wells and returning the land to farming.

The company’s latest update on the Preston New Road site told Lancashire County Council:

“Initial rig procurement is within the final stages of award following a wider programme of wellbore abandonments across the UK with other operators.

“Work continues to co-ordinate the decommissioning programme, resources, and equipment with a target date of summer 2024 to begin abandoning the wellbores at Preston New Road.”

The paragraph from the update, dated 28 June 2024, is almost identical to one in the December 2023 progress report. The only difference is in the first sentence of the earlier report, which said:

“Initial rig procurement has started with the intention to join a wider programme of wellbore abandonments across the UK with other operators.”

There has been no visible activity on the Preston New Road site since the December 2023 report. Grass is now growing across the access road.

Cuadrilla said it still intended to restore the site to its original condition by the end of June 2025. It also said there was no update on surrendering the environmental permit. The company said:

“An application cannot happen until the wells have been decommissioned and post abandonment monitoring has commenced.”

Cuadrilla is required to send six monthly progress reports to council planners as a condition of a planning permission granted in June 2023 to allow more time for well decommissioning and site restoration at Preston New Road.

The company previously published a timeline which showed that well decommissioning would take place from January to March 2023. Ground water monitoring and the process of surrendering the environmental permit should have started in December 2023.

Under an order from the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), Cuadrilla must plug and abandon the wells by December 2024. The planning permission requires the company to complete plugging and abandonment work by the same date and restore the site by June 2025.

“Sceptical”

Miranda Cox, of Frack Free Lancashire and a member of the Preston New Road community liaison group (CLG), said:

“Given that it is now July, and we have seen no activity on site, we are sceptical that these target dates will be met. We note that Cuadrilla state they are still procuring the necessary rig and that a firm date is not yet set. These vagaries do little to reassure residents.

“It is frustrating that the Community Liaison Group appear to be omitted from communications. The CLG has not met since early March 2020, having been suspended after the Moratorium [on fracking in England]. However the CLG was a planning condition and we expected to be informed of developments for the whole life cycle of the exploration site.

“We very much look forward to seeing the wells plugged and the site restored, finally bringing closure for the community.”

Susan Holliday, from Preston New Road Action Group, which campaigned against the site, said:

“It is disappointing that over the last 12 months Cuadrilla have made no progress on their decommissioning of the site at Preston New Road.

“It is, however, encouraging that they still intend to plug and cap the wells by the end of this year and to have fully restored the site by this time next year. We will be watching with interest over the coming weeks to see what is happening on the site.” 

Jeff Turner, who lives near Preston New Road, said:

“I have compared this 12 month report to the six-month report dated 13th December 2023.  They are almost exactly the same both in format and content.  The only differences are the date and that the procurement of rig equipment is “within the final stages”.  

“This is again not time specific and even if they did obtain the necessary equipment and started the well decommissioning immediately, the final restoration would not be complete until the end of April 2026.

“This is approaching a year late and is clearly unacceptable.  Lancashire County Council Planning should be addressing this with Cuadrilla now rather than when it’s too late.”

DrillOrDrop understands that Lancashire County Council planners have replied to Cuadrilla with additional questions about progress.

Condition 14 of Cuadrilla’s 2023 planning permission required the company to submit a report to Lancashire planners by 7 December 2023 and at six monthly intervals until restoration had been completed. Cuadrilla missed the deadlines for both the December and June reports.

The report should:

• Describe work taken place in the previous six months on plugging and abandonment of the boreholes and restoration of the site
• Actions to gain regulatory approval for plugging and abandonment of the boreholes and surrender of the environmental permit

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