Cuadrilla to reveal Lancashire fracking sites

A Cuadrilla source confirmed that the sites would be revealed but said the priority was to inform local residents.

Communities have been promised £100,000 for every shale well that is fracked during exploration, and a 1pc share of revenues if gas is produced.

However, the benefits have been attacked as inadequate by politicians in the north-west, including the leader of Lancashire County Council, which will be the authority for Cuadrilla’s planning applications.

Cuadrilla attracted huge protests during drilling for oil at Balcombe, West Sussex, last summer, after saying it might seek permission to frack there in future. It has since ruled that out as unnecessary because the rocks are naturally fractured.

Other companies such as IGas, which is drilling at the protest-hit Barton Moss site near Manchester, are so far only drilling to take shale rock samples and have not confirmed whether they intend to frack at the sites.

Cuadrilla and Centrica undertook a joint review of planned drilling sites after the two companies struck a £160m deal last summer, in which the British Gas owner took a 25pc stake in Cuadrilla’s Lancashire exploration licence.

The companies said in July that they wanted to frack at up to six new sites and also at Cuadrilla’s existing site at Grange Hill, near Singleton , over the next 18 months to two years.

Cuadrilla has also since abandoned the Preese Hall site and revised plans at other sites.

Fracking wells may typically be drilled to a depth of at least 8,000 feet and then out horizontally underground for as long as 10,000 feet.

Cuadrilla is expected to have selected sites where it has struck access agreements with landowners to allow fracking beneath their land.

This should avoid it repeating the experience of Celtique Energie in Fernhurst, West Sussex, which has not even announced plans to frack but already faces a “legal block” from hostile landowners that will effectively prevent it doing so without a court battle.

At the time of last year's deal with Cuadrilla, Centrica was the biggest company to throw its weight behind shale gas exploration in the UK. It has since been followed by France’s GDF Suez and Total.

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