IGas Cleared to Drill 2nd UK Shale Site

Nottinghamshire, in the English Midlands, has approved IGas Energy’s second planning application for shale gas exploration drilling; both are in the Bassetlaw area in the north of the county.

The site approved by councillors, at a seven-hour planning committee meeting March 21, is currently open farmland at Tinker Lane between Barnby Moor and Blyth. The application was submitted by IGas subsidiary Dart Energy. The consent included 52 conditions including controls on traffic, lighting, noise and ecology. Traffic restrictions include stopping heavy trucks from passing a primary school. 

The first IGas site approved was in mid-November at Misson Springs.

No hydraulic fracturing will be undertaken under either planning consent, and the county said that to date it has received no fracking applications.

The county cited data from industry body UK Onshore Oil and Gas (UKOOG) that show that, since 1939, 27% of the UK’s onshore oil and gas wells have been drilled in Nottinghamshire, and that 17 sites in the county – including Eakring -- are still producing good-quality crude oil.

IGas has conventional oil production in nearby Gainsborough (Photo credit: IGas)

Challenges elsewhere for shale drillers

The High Court in Manchester is expected to give judgement in early/mid-April, following a hearing last week at which local residents sought to overturn an October 2016 government decision to allow fracking at Fylde, in northwest England, by Cuadrilla Resources. That decision overturned a June 2015 refusal by Lancashire county council to grant planning consent.  

However, a High Court ruling in December 2016 upheld North Yorkshire county council’s approval in May that year of Barclays Bank subsidiary Third Energy’s application to drill and frack for shale gas.

Uncertainty and low gas prices led France’s Engie to sell its shale exploration interests earlier this month to Ineos, the largest such UK acreage holder.

Mark Smedley