Page 8 - Gi flipbook April 2019

industry & Government news

UK REJECTS despite two of the most prominent

fracking companies warning that they
would damage the economy.
“We set these regulations in
FRACKERS’ CALLS TO consultation with industry and we
have no plans to review them,” a BEIS
spokesperson told The Financial Times.
Ineos founder Jim Ratcliffe said
EASE RESTRICTIONS regulations that force companies to
suspend fracking if they trigger earth
tremors exceeding 0.5 on the Richter
seismic scale were “unworkable”.
Cuadrilla, the first company to
begin fracking in the UK late last
year, added separately it had been
unable to complete tests of a shale gas
CUARDRILLA
exploration well at its Preston New
Road site in Lancashire, due to the
“highly conservative” regulations.
BEIS believes shale gas could be an
important new domestic energy source
and says it has given the industry
“significant support”. But it said it was
keeping regulations in place “to ensure
fracking happens safely and responsibly”.
Cuadrilla says it plans to continue
working with the government, as its
“preliminary result[s]… show a rich
reservoir of natural and high quality
CUADRILLA SAYS IT PLANS TO gas directly beneath our feet.”
WORK WITH THE GOVERNMENT “We plan to work with the regulators
to use our data and our operating
THE UK GOVERNMENT has rejected The Department for Business, experience to assess how this can be
calls to relax the seismic limits the Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) done safely and responsibly to unlock
fracking industry says are making it said the limits had been agreed with this fantastic opportunity for this
almost impossible to operate successfully. industry and were not up for review, country,” it added.

BULB TO LOWER GAS PRICES BY 2% FOR A MILLION CUSTOMERS

A MILLION HOUSEHOLDS will have BULB
their energy bills reduced after one of
the fastest-growing suppliers bucked
the recent trend for price increases.
Bulb, the UK’s eighth biggest energy
supplier behind Ovo Energy and
the Big Six, said it was cutting gas
prices by two per cent, or £20 a year,
bringing an average annual dual fuel
bill to £1,000.
That is more than £250 cheaper than
the new default tariffs of the largest
suppliers, which have all announced BULB IS BUCKING THE TREND
price rises from 1 April to £1,254 AND REDUCING PRICES
– the maximum allowed under the
government’s price cap. December because relatively mild has continued to come down and we’re
Although wholesale energy costs rose winter weather resulted in gas storage now able to drop our gas rates. Due to
last year, they have begun to fall in the staying at healthy levels. Electricity increased network and policy costs for
past few months, reports The Guardian. prices have fallen by the same amount, electricity, we aren’t able to drop our
Bulb is the first large supplier to pass as nearly half of the UK’s electricity electricity rates at the same time.”
those savings on to consumers. supplies come from gas power stations. The company raised its tariff
The company said wholesale gas Amit Gudka, one of Bulb’s founders, three times last year, blaming
prices had fallen by 12 per cent since said: “Happily, the cost of supplying gas wholesale costs.

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News.indd 3 14/03/2019 14:19