At least 10 lorry loads of equipment were delivered today to decommission two former shale gas wells at Cuadrilla’s mothballed fracking site near Blackpool.

The deliveries, which included the coiled tubing unit, were watched by anti-fracking campaigners who six years years ago were demonstrating against the company’s operations at Preston New Road.

Deliveries of decommissioning equipment to Preston New Road on 24 February 2025. All photos: Katrina Lawrie

Cuadrilla was ordered by Lancashire County Council and the industry regulator, the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) to plug and abandon the site’s horizontal shale gas wells by December 2024.

The company missed the deadline, blaming a shortage of rigs. It told council planners it would begin work by the end of this month (February 2025).

The site, suspended in August 2019 after fracking-induced earthquakes, must be restored to farmland by June 2025.

Last week, residents welcomed the arrival of a crane at Preston New Road, marking the start of the decommissioning operation.

Yesterday, several media outlets, including the Mail and Telegraph, reported an eleventh hour call for the Preston New Road decommissioning order to be revoked.

This happened once before in March 2022, when decommissioning equipment had also been delivered. Then, the NSTA withdrew the order. It gave Cuadrilla until June 2023 to “evaluate options” for the Preston New Road site. The regulator said “if no credible re-use plans are in place by then” it would expect to reimpose the decommissioning order.

In August 2023, the NSTA issued the current plug and abandonment notice for the Preston New Road wells.

The Telegraph reported that the call for the order to be revoked came in a letter to the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, organised by Lord Mackinley, chair of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group.

The group, largely comprising Conservative MPs, has had links to the Global Warming Policy Foundation, the UK’s most prominent climate science denial organisation.

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