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    UK Govt Consults on Fast-Tracking Shale (Update)

Summary

The government has opened a three-month consultation into whether shale gas planning applications should be speeded up; a parliamentary committee has said that would be a step too far.

by: Mark Smedley

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Natural Gas & LNG News, Europe, Corporate, Exploration & Production, Shale Gas , Political, Ministries, Environment, Regulation, Infrastructure, News By Country, United Kingdom

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UK Govt Consults on Fast-Tracking Shale (Update)

(Adds comment from UKOOG)

The UK government has opened a consultation, which closes October 25, on whether shale gas production projects should be included in the UK’s Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) regime.

The accompanying document, issued July 19, explains that the UK’s Planning Act 2008 created a fast-track planning process for NSIPs in development of energy, water, waste water, road and rail sectors, and the disposal of hazardous waste. Government is now looking to extend this to shale gas developments. 

This is supported by industry group UK Onshore Oil & Gas Group (Ukoog) and shale gas explorers including Cuadrilla, which argue that the existing planning approvals process is protracted. The 2008 Act states that NSIP decisions must be made within one year of the start of examination. Government says that local authorities can still have a role in the process.

However, the communities parliamentary select committee, in a report released July 2, argued strongly that shale gas developments should not be included in the NSIPs regime. The committee said that classing them as NSIPs "would result in a significant loss to local decision-making, exacerbating existing mistrust between local communities and the fracking industry."

The committee also said that “if NSIP were to be used for fracking applications, it is essential that a National Policy Statement is prepared as a matter of urgency that would include suitable measures to restrict inappropriate proliferation of well-pads and unacceptable impacts on landscapes.” It said the North Yorkshire draft Joint Minerals and Waste Plan provided a template for such a statement.

Reacting, Ukoog said it welcomed the consultations and would be submitting a response in due course. Planning applications for onshore gas developments have gone from taking three months to over a year to assess, leaving communities with uncertainty and councils under-resourced, it said: "To ensure that the UK gets the flexible, reliable and secure source of gas it needs, we have to improve those timescales."

p20 of  the government's consultation document on whether shale gas production projects should be included in NSIPs is shown below:

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