Cuadrilla set to get go-ahead to drill at UK shale site

THOMAS BIESHEUVEL

LICHFIELD, United Kingdom (Bloomberg) -- Cuadrilla Resources Ltd., the driller whose fracing ambitions have sparked protests in the UK, took a step closer to sinking a shale-gas well in northwest England as council planners backed the project.

Lancashire Council officials recommended that drilling at the company’s Preston New Road site near Blackpool be approved at a council vote next week. They urged a rejection of its fracing plans at the nearby Roseacre site.

Cuadrilla was forced to scale back drilling proposals earlier this year after council planners opposed its applications for eight wells at the two sites, citing concerns over noise and traffic. Opposition to hydraulic fracturing has stymied development of the UK’s shale industry since a drilling moratorium was lifted in 2012.

Cuadrilla confirmed the recommendations in a statement on its website. If the plans are approved, the Lichfield, England-based company could be drilling by the end of the year, CEO Francis Egan said in April.

Environmental group Greenpeace urged the council to reject the proposals because of the potential damage to water supplies and air quality.

“It’s a stark choice between protecting their communities’ health and quality of life and working towards a clean-energy future on the one hand, or sacrificing all this for the sake of an unproven and risky industry that may never deliver,” Greenpeace said in a statement.