continued uk exploration, page-7

New sites next year under review. And maybe Caudrilla should play strictly by the book.


In an interview with The Times, Lord Smith, chairman of the Environment Agency, said that he was “minded to” approve eight permits covering fracking proposed by Cuadrilla Resources at three new sites in Lancashire at the end of the month. Support from the regulator, which will make its final decision after a public consultation, is a big boost for the company.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/naturalresources/article3762181.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2013_05_10

The company will still need to secure planning permission from local authorities to begin fracking again next year as planned. Lord Smith revealed that the process had been held up by “one or two months” after Cuadrilla Resources claimed that it should not be subject to tough regulations requiring it to monitor closely any contamination of aquifers after fracking takes place.About half this fluid flows back to the surface, but the rest remains underground. Environmentalists fear that the fluid could leak into aquifers and contaminate drinking water supplies.

According to Lord Smith, Cuadrilla Resources argued that the EU mining waste directive should not apply to the fluid that remains underground. The directive requires operators to check regularly that the fluid does not escape.

“Their argument was that this was stuff which would not come to the surface anyway and therefore should not be regarded as a waste,” Lord Smith said. “We believed it was appropriate to be treated as a waste.”

He said that under the directive, normally applied to miners and conventional oil companies, shale gas operators “have to make absolutely, demonstrably sure [that the fluid] is under proper control, properly sealed, and check that it continues to be the case” for decades after fracking.

The Environment Agency had to take legal advice to back its case that the directive should apply. Lord Smith said that Cuadrilla Resources had now “accepted that it does. It probably would have been better if we had agreed right at the outset.”

After being commissioned by the Government to review the risks of fracking, the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering called last year for the introduction of specific regulations for the shale gas industry. The Government has decided instead to rely on existing regulations covering the oil and mining industries.

Cuadrilla Resources said in a statement: “Cuadrilla enjoys a very good working relationship with the Environment Agency and we have worked constructively together in progressing the environmental permits required for our operations. We fully expect that constructive working relationship to continue in the future as we further develop our operations.”