Where next for shale gas in the UK?
The UK isn’t Texas – and for most of us, the possibility that oil and gas extraction could arrive in our local area probably hasn’t been top of mind up to now. But as protests against fracking continue in a village in East Sussex, the question arises: Where might companies drill next?
Over the last few weeks, the possibility that fracking – or hydraulic fracturing – could be used in Balcombe, East Sussex, has prompted mass protests, despite the fact that no fracking has yet occurred at the site. Balcombe has become a symbol of a larger fight – about climate change, the UK’s energy future, and the willingness of communities to take on new energy infrastructure. But it’s not the only quiet outpost of the British Isles in the fracking companies’ sights.
Fracking up to now – Lancashire
A company that wants to extract oil or gas first has to apply for a licence from the Department for Energy and Climate Change. Once it has the licence, it needs planning permission before it can drill an exploration well, and yet more planning permission before it can frack it. Most of the applications currently ongoing apply to the initial stage of exploration for oil or gas, rather than for fracking.
Back in 2011, Cuadrilla drilled a well and fracked a site in Weeton, near Blackpool. After the drilling triggered a minor earthquake, Cuadrilla suspended operations, never to start them up again. It also drilled exploratory wells in two other areas in Lancashire in 2011 – in Singleton and Becconsall – but it hasn’t fracked either of them.
At the moment, Cuadrilla is applying for planning permission to drill another exploration well in Clifton, near Fylde in Lancashire – prompting local campaigners to argue that Balcombe-style protests ” could happen in Lancashire”. It’s also planning to apply to extend a well – which may then be fracked – in Westby, Lancashire.
Planning permission on Cuadrilla’s other sites in Lancashire has run out – but the company says overall it’s planning to bring forward ” up to six new temporary exploration well sites” – so presumably there are more to come.
The story goes big – Sussex
It wasn’t until Cuadrilla moved down south that the fracking media story really took off. In August 2013, Cuadrilla started to drill an exploratory well for shale oil in Balcombe, East Sussex. Protests are ongoing – but it has applied to remain at the site for a further six months, with the application due to be heard in September this year.
Oil and gas company Celtique Energie is also active in the south east. It’s got permission to drill a test well in Broadford Bridge, West Sussex – but a spokesperson for the company told Carbon Brief the well is for conventional oil and gas, so fracking won’t be needed to get it out of the ground.
Proposed wells at Fernhurst and Wisborough Green in West Sussex could be fracked, depending on what Celtique Energie finds under ground. Planning permission for the Wisborough Green site should be submitted at the end of this month, and for Fenhurst, late September. Like Balcombe, Fenhurst is within the South Downs National Park.
So around the beginning of 2014, exploratory drilling could start at Wisborough Green. Just as in Balcombe, that’s not the same as fracking the rock – but it might lead that way.
Where else?
While Cuadrilla has taken most of the public relations heat over shale gas, another company – iGas – has had some media coverage, too. It released an estimate in June claiming 100 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of shale gas could sit within its drilling area in Lancashire and Cheshire.
IGas has been granted planning permission to drill test wells in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, and Irlam Port, Manchester. The drilling was due to take place “this summer” according to the Daily Telegraph in January. An iGas spokesperson, initially reluctant to admit to any involvement in shale oil and gas at all, would only tell Carbon Brief that the company plans to drill the first well “before the end of the year”.
Finally, small company Coastal Oil and Gas Ltd seems to have rather mysterious plans. It received permission to undertake test drilling at Woodnesborough near Sandwich in Kent at the end of 2011. Following an appeal, it’s also been granted permission to drill for shale gas in the Vale of Glamorgan in South Wales.
According to the BBC, Coastal Oil and Gas is applying for further permission in Llantrisant, South Wales and already has permission to drill test wells in two other locations. It doesn’t, however, appear to have done any drilling, doesn’t appear to have a website, and hasn’t responded to a request for comment.
Image - Table _shaleplanning (note)
Locations where drilling for shale gas or shale oil may take place in England.
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For an interactive map illustrating this data click here.
What happens next?
In many cases, permission was granted for drilling wells some years ago, before fracking really impinged on the nation’s consciousness, and before anti-fracking protests got going.
Now it’s more high profile – but polling commissioned by Carbon Brief shows that less than one fifth of voters would support a shale gas development within ten miles of their home, so that’s not necessarily good news for the companies concerned. Companies that may have seen fracking as an easy win could be rethinking their strategies now.