Campaigners hail death of fracking in UK as work stops at Lancashire site

13th October 2019 | Commercial Energy

Anti-fracking protestors have hailed the “death of fracking” in the UK after major company Cuadrilla reportedly started removing equipment from its testing area in Lancashire. The move comes after fracking at the Preston New Road site in Lancashire was blamed for a series of minor earthquakes in August.

Earlier this month, Friends of the Earth welcomed news that fracking wouldn’t take place at the site before permissions expired at the end of November. The news was contained in a Cuadrilla statement announcing that flow testing would begin at the site – something campaigners describe as a “desperate attempt to put a positive spin on the fracking fiasco at Preston New Road”.

As equipment was reportedly removed from the site, Friends of the Earth fracking campaigner Jamie Peters told the Sunday Times, “Fracking in the UK is now dead. Cuadrilla’s test drilling at Preston New Road was the flagship scheme – and it’s gone badly. To get this industry off the ground, regulations would need to be relaxed, and that’s just not going to happen after those August quakes and the growing environmental concerns around fossil fuels.”

Fracking

In August a series of seismic “events” – one measuring a magnitude of 2.9 – stopped work at the site. Claire Stephenson, who lives near the site and is a member of a local anti-fracking campaign group, told the Sunday Times. “It’s been great seeing Cuadrilla taking their equipment away. She added, “It’s dying – and that’s good not for us in Lancashire, but for every other community around the country where there is a potential fracking site.”

Yahoo News UK has contacted Cuadrilla. In a statement on September 30, the company said, “Cuadrilla confirmed it continued to assist the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) on a series of technical studies arising out of a seismic event measuring 2.9ML on the Richter scale, which occurred on August 26 2019. “A timeframe has not been agreed with the OGA for this work to be completed and further hydraulic fracturing will not take place at Preston New Road before current planning permission for fracturing expires at the end of November.”

More information available on the website below

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/campaigners-hail-death-fracking-uk-work-stops-lancashire-site-cuadrilla-091616724.html