Ministers told to act before fracking wells are plugged
BORIS JOHNSON and Kwasi Kwarteng have been accused of “failing to match their rhetoric with action” on a possible relaxation of the fracking ban.
Cuadrilla, the energy firm due to seal two of the country’s only viable shale gas wells this week, said the Business Department had failed to take any action to lift the deadline by which it has been told the wells must be plugged.
Francis Egan, the company’s chief executive, said officials “must be instructed to stop dragging their heels and frustrating the Government’s wishes” in order to stop the wells being plugged within days, despite being “eminently useful”.
He intervened after Mr Kwarteng told the Commons that “it did not necessarily make any sense to concrete over the wells” at the Preston New Road site in Lancashire. It was separately reported that the Prime Minister wants his ministers to look again at whether fracking, which has been under a moratorium for more than two years, can help diversify the country’s energy supply.
Last week, almost 40 Conservative MPs and peers issued a plea to Mr Johnson to reverse the plans, insisting that Britain must embark on a “national mission” to secure its energy independence. Despite Mr Kwarteng’s remarks in the Commons, a deadline enforced by the Oil and Gas Authority requires the wells to be plugged by June 30.
Cuadrilla says it needs to start the process this week to meet that deadline. It is understood to be free to apply for an extension to the deadline.
But the firm wants to take Mr Kwarteng up on his suggestion that it can avoid concreting the wells altogether, rather than simply delay the move.
Mr Egan said: “The Government is failing to match its rhetoric with action. Since Wednesday the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) have been repeatedly contacted by and on behalf of Cuadrilla to discuss how to give practical effect to the Prime Minister and Secretary of State’s statements.
“The only clear and unambiguous response has been verbal confirmation from the OGA that June 30 remains the legal deadline to plug both wells with cement.”
‘The only clear response has been confirmation that June 30 remains the deadline to plug both wells with cement’