The fracking company, Cuadrilla, has been given just over four weeks to start plugging the shale gas wells at its mothballed Preston New Road site in Lancashire.

County council planners set the new deadline after the company missed a date last month to complete the work.

The company should have finished work, under a condition of its planning permission, by 8 December 2024.

Local people and campaigners were angered when Cuadrilla failed to comply. The company blamed a shortage of rigs and estimated the work would take until the end of March.

Cuadrilla must now start work on decommissioning the wells by the end of February, the council said in a statement to DrillOrDrop.

But the authority did not specify whether Cuadrilla had committed to meet the new date or what would happen if the company failed to comply.

A council spokesperson said:

“We have been in discussions with Cuadrilla in recent months to progress the restoration of the site and reach a resolution.

 “We wrote to Cuadrilla on January 16 to express our extreme disappointment that the completion of the plugging and abandonment works is now behind the permitted time limit of 8 December 2024.

 “We gave Cuadrilla one week to provide evidence that they have contracted a rig operator, which they have supplied, and we have also asked for confirmation that the works are due to commence by the end of February.

 “Our aim is to ensure that any delays are minimised and Cuadrilla are fully aware of our expectations. We will continue to engage with Cuadrilla on this matter.”

Local reaction to the announcement has been cautious.

A spokesperson for Preston New Road Action Group, which campaigned against Cuadrilla’s operation, said:

“It is good that LCC are finally trying to ensure that Cuadrilla restore the site at Preston New Road. This is the only time that we will actually be pleased when a rig arrives on site.

“We are already at the end of January and there still seems to have been no progress. Let’s hope that restoration actually starts to happen in February and that there is enough funding to complete it. The local community has been kept waiting far too long.” 

Miranda Cox, a local resident and Frack Free Lancashire campaigner, said:

“Whilst we now appear to have a date by which Cuadrilla are to start decommissioning, we won’t hold our breath until we see activity on the site. 

“We note that LCC make no mention of any sanctions, despite this further delay to the planning condition. Cuadrilla have been allowed to obfuscate and delay with impunity. 

“In the meantime, the gates to the site continue to be used for fly tipping, a constant reminder of Cuadrilla’s cavalier attitude to the community and the environment.”

Under the terms of the site’s planning permission, Cuadrilla must also restore the well pad to farmland by 8 June 2025, now four and a half months away.

Update

Cuadrilla issued a statement after our article was published on the evening of Tuesday 28 January 2025. The company said:

“Cuadrilla plans to move equipment onto the Preston New Road (PNR) site in the second half of February to start work on plugging the two PNR shale gas exploration wells with cement and removing the valves and surface pipework from the wells and from the site.

“This work, in industry terminology referred to as “plugging and abandoning” the wells, follows-on from formal notification issued by the regulator, North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) in relation to the plugging and abandonment of both wells.

“Our well plug & abandonment works, will initially entail the use of a coiled tubing unit to remove tubing from one of the two wells. Once this has been completed the rig required for the bulk of the plugging and abandonment operation will arrive on site. We currently expect the rig to arrive towards the end of February.”

NSTA deadline

Cuadrilla also failed to meet a target set by the industry regulator, the North Sea Transition Authority, for plugging and abandoning the Preston New Road wells by 30 December 2024. We asked the NSTA what action it would take. The organisation told us:

“We cannot comment on any interactions we have had with operators due to reasons of commercial confidentiality. However, through our continuing stewardship of the onshore oil and gas industry, we are fully aware of ongoing developments.”

• DrillOrDrop reported yesterday on uncertainty about Cuadrilla’s finances

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