The Telegraph: Oil price fall cuts fracking costs for Cuadrilla
Britain’s hopes of a shale gas boom will not be killed off by current low commodity prices and fracking firm Cuadrilla actually stands to gain from the plunging oil price, its chief executive has said.
As oil majors slash North Sea investment in the face of sub-$50 prices, the costs of equipment and contractors for Cuadrilla’s fracking plans are falling “very significantly”, Francis Egan told the Telegraph.
Mr Egan was speaking ahead of the verdict from Lancashire County Council’s planning officer, expected this week, on its proposals to frack at two sites. The planning process has taken about twice as long as Cuadrilla hoped, delaying first fracking to the end of this year at the earliest.
Oil prices have more than halved over recent months while UK gas prices, which are largely decoupled from crude, have dropped in the last year.