Decommissioning of Cuadrilla’s mothballed fracking wells is due to get underway within days after a crane was delivered to the site near Blackpool.

Cuadrilla has been ordered to decommission the two wells at the Preston New Road site by the industry regulator and Lancashire County Council.

The company failed to meet the December 2024 deadlines. It blamed a shortage of rigs in the UK.

This is the first time equipment has been visible at the site at Preston New Road for nearly three years.

DrillOrDrop understands that the main deployment of equipment will happen next week, followed by the work to decommission the wells.

Fracking at Preston New Road was suspended in August 2019 following a series of earthquakes. Some equipment was removed in October 2019. The site has been largely suspended since then.

In a statement last month (28 January 2025), Cuadrilla said it planned to move equipment onto Preston New Road in the second half of February. It said it expected the rig to arrive “towards the end of February”.

The Preston New Road wells – the UK’s only onshore fracked horizontal shale gas wells – must be plugged with cement. The valves and surface pipework will also be removed.

The process, known has plugging and abandonment, is expected to take about six weeks, Cuadrilla said in its statement.

We understand that Cuadrilla has not told people who live near the site about the rig’s arrival or any imminent start of work.

Susan Holliday, from Preston New Road Action Group, which opposes development of the site, said today:

“It is encouraging to see some activity at long last, hopefully this is the first step towards restoration.

“Eleven years after Cuadrilla first announced their plans for Preston New Road, maybe the end of the site is finally in sight. We are looking forward to being able to see green fields rather than the harmful industrial infrastructure that we currently look out on.”      

Miranda Cox, of Frack Free Lancashire, said: 

Residents were not informed of work commencing, but then we haven’t been notified of activity or inactivity for a long time.  We have, however, been eagerly looking at the skyline for weeks hoping to see a crane or a rig. 

“We hope this is the beginning of the end but, as always, we remain vigilant. We hope that the remaining silica sand will be removed safely. It has been exposed to the elements in deteriorating bags since the Moratorium, so there are concerns. Additionally we would like assurances that Cuadrilla are footing the bill and not Lancashire residents.”

Anti-fracking campaigner Barbara Richardson said today:

“Finally there appears to be some progress on plugging the wells at PNR.

“However, we will not be happy until the site is fully restored to a greenfield and no longer an eyesore. So many people, at all levels, have campaigned long and hard and their determination looks to finally be paying off. 

Fracking has no place here on the Fylde, or indeed anywhere. Communities will continue to fight tooth and nail to prevent it…..myself included!”

John Singleton, a county councillor for Fylde West, said in a statement:

“When an extension was applied for the Preston New Road Site I did make an objection to this, along with Fylde Borough Council  and the former Member of Parliament.

“This extension was agreed which I had to accept. For many months the site lay dormant to the naked eye.

“The decommissioning should have been completed by 8^th December 2024. On the 9^th December I contacted our planning department and requested enforcement action.

“No action took place but on the 2^nd December some correspondence did arrive from the company. This correspondence did outline the company’s plans with regards to the decommissioning .

“From my observations standing at the front gate there seems to be little action taking place.

“I have tried to contact the company but no one has returned my calls.”

Background

In August 2023, the industry regulator, the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), ordered Cuadrilla to plug and abandon the Preston New Road wells. It gave the company until 30 December 2024 to complete the work.

NSTA had previously instructed Cuadrilla to submit “credible plans” for site by the end of June 2023. An earlier plug and abandonment order in 2022 was withdrawn after 50 days, despite the delivery of decommissioning equipment.

The wells were also required to be plugged and abandoned by the planning permission, granted in June 2023. This said the wells must be decommissioned by 8 December 2024 and the site restored by 8 June 2025.

The planning permission also required the company to provide seven-days advance written notification of the start of decommissioning the wells and site.

There is still a flare on the Preston New Road site. We understand there are also bags of silica sand remaining after the most recent fracking operation.

Updated 21 February 2025 with statement from Cllr John Singleton.

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