Just dropped31 Mar 2022 14:49
Press Release: Cuadrilla Resources Ltd
31st March 2022, Immediate Release
UK REGULATOR WITHDRAWS NOTICE TO PLUG BRITAIN’S ONLY TWO SHALE GAS WELLS AT PRESTON NEW ROAD (PNR) LANCASHIRE SITE
Cuadrilla Resources Ltd has been formally advised by the UK Regulator, the North Sea Transition Authority (“NSTA”), that the NSTA is withdrawing the notice it had previously issued requiring Cuadrilla to plug and abandon the Britain’s only two shale gas exploration wells drilled at the PNR site.
Francis Egan, CEO of Cuadrilla Resources Ltd, said:
“I would like to thank the Prime Minister and the Business Secretary for seeing the light and realising - just in time - how absurd it would have been to force us to pour concrete down Britain’s only two viable shale gas wells in the middle of an energy crisis.
“But this suspension will have a cul-de-sac ending unless we now reverse the moratorium preventing us from using the wells (and others like them) to get shale gas out of the ground and flowing into British households.
“It is widely acknowledged – including by the Climate Change Committee - that natural gas will continue to play a key role in UK energy supply for many decades to come, even as the country transitions to a Net Zero CO2 economy. We remain convinced that the Bowland shale gas resource has the potential to be a very significant contributor to UK energy supply and in particular a source of cost-effective fuel for heating UK homes and businesses.
“If we start using the trillions of cubic feet of British shale gas that sits beneath our feet, we can create tens of thousands of British jobs, millions of pounds in tax revenue for local councils in the North of England and, of course, we can start supplying domestic gas to British consumers which will put downward pressure on soaring prices. We can also reduce and potentially halt the expensive and high CO2 imports of gas from abroad – including from Russia. It makes no sense to spend billions of pounds annually on importing gas from the Middle East, the US, Russia – we should be deploying this substantial British asset instead.”
ENDS