Page 8 - EurOil Week 07 2022

EurOil POLICY EurOil

UK orders closure of

only shale gas wells

UK UK upstream regulator Oil & Gas Authority has rectify this mistake.”
ordered the country’s only two horizontal shale “Safe shale gas offers us a chance to com-
The UK government wells to be plugged and abandoned, their opera- bat the cost-of-living crisis, create 75,000 jobs
ordered a moratorium tor Cuadrilla reported on February 9. and deliver on the ‘levelling up agenda’ in Red
on fracking in late The two wells will be permanently sealed at Wall areas, in addition to reducing our reliance
2019. the site at Preston New Road in north England. on imported gas so that Britain becomes more
Cuadrilla lamented that this meant that 37.6 tril- energy secure,” Egan continued.
lion cubic metres in the northern Bowland Shale The “Red Wall” was a reference to the tra-
formation where Preston New Road is situated ditionally Labour Party-held constituencies in
would “continue to sit unused - when just 10% the north of England, many of which the Con-
of this volume could meet UK gas needs for 50 servative Party won over during the last election
years.” which saw Johnson win by a landslide. The polit-
“Instead, UK imports of natural gas are ical landscape is now very different, however,
expected to skyrocket to over 80% by 2050,” the with Johnson now stuck with a 70% disapproval
company said. rating, over his handling of the coronavirus
The UK government ordered a morato- pandemic and alleged flouting of restrictions by
rium on the use of hydraulic fracturing needed himself and other staffers in Number 10.
to extract shale gas in November 2019, in a The public also faces record high energy bills
pre-election move by UK Prime Minister Boris this year, owing to the broader energy crisis
Johnson to shore up public support in north unfolding in Europe, caused by global natural
England and as a result, Cuadrilla was forced to gas supply constraints and sharply rebounding
cease its work. demand for energy.
“At a time when the UK is spending billions of Cuadrilla expects to mobilise a rig for plug-
pounds annually importing gas from all corners ging the wells shortly. They were drilled to ver-
of the globe, and gas prices for hard-pressed UK tical depths of around 2.25 km, and onwards
households are rocketing, the UK government horizontally for a further 0.75 km.
has chosen this moment to ask us to plug and Critics of the fracking ban note that UK oil
abandon the only two viable shale gas wells in and gas supply is falling faster than demand,
the UK,” Cuadrilla CEO Francis Egan said in a which will mean the country will have to import
statement. more hydrocarbons unless it invests more in
The company has already sunk hundreds of domestic development. This situation not only
millions of pounds on establishing that the Bow- costs jobs and hits the economy, but also results
land Shale is a high-quality gas deposit. Once the in increased emissions relating to the greater dis-
wells are filled with cement and abandoned, it tance that oil and gas cargoes must travel to reach
said, it will be “incredibly costly and difficult to the consumer. ™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 07 17•February•2022