UK regulator orders Cuadrilla to plug shale wells
UK shale gas developer Cuadrilla Resources has received an Oil & Gas Authority (OGA) order to plug and abandon Britain’s only horizontal shale gas wells, the company said February 9.
Parent company AJ Lucas confirmed it will seal two shale gas wells drilled at the Preston New Road shale exploration site in Lancashire.
|
Advertisement: The National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (NGC) NGC’s HSSE strategy is reflective and supportive of the organisational vision to become a leader in the global energy business. |
The closure means the 37.6 trillion m3 located in the northern Bowland Shale formation will remain in place. Just 10% of this volume could meet UK gas needs for 50 years, Cuadrilla said. Meanwhile, UK imports of natural gas are expected to rise to over 80% by 2050.
“At a time when the UK is spending billions of pounds annually importing gas from all corners of the globe, and gas prices for hard-pressed UK households are rocketing, the UK government has chosen this moment to ask us to plug and abandon the only two viable shale gas wells in Britain,” Cuadrilla CEO Francis Egan said. “Leaving our own shale gas in the ground will make reducing global emissions even harder. Emissions from importing gas are far higher than those from home-produced shale gas.”
Prime minister Boris Johnson's government imposed a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in 2019, foreshadowing an uncertain future for the well test project.
Cuadrilla pledged to work with the OGA to address concerns about the impact of hydraulic fracturing at its drilling site after the OGA published a study that found that it was not possible to accurately predict the probability or magnitude of fracking-related tremors in 2019. Record-breaking tremors had been detected at the company’s Preston New Road site in August that year.