Huge potential fracking gas reserves stretching from Lincoln to South Yorkshire discovered

The gas would have to be extracted by fracking, the controversial way of removing oil and natural gas from shale rock by drilling.

Years of protests over fracking in Kirby Misperton, North Yorkshire, eventually forced company Third Energy to try and extract energy via clean geothermal means.

The Government confirmed to The Yorkshire Post that it has no plans to lift the fracking ban, saying it is difficult to predict the impact of the earthquakes and seismic activity caused by the drilling.

Labour has also blocked new oil and gas licences, saying that the issue with producing fossil fuels in the UK is that they get sold on the international market to the highest bidder.

Egdon Resources said that the possible gas reserves, which are focused around the Gainsborough Trench in Lincolnshire, could be up to 480 billion cubic meters of recoverable gas.

That’s more than 10 times the size of Shell’s Jackdaw field in the North Sea, estimated to hold 38 billion cubic meters.

The reserves would have been produced over millions of years, much of when the UK was underwater, as decomposing organic matter got compressed turning it into oil and gas.

The company believes the area stretches from Lincoln in the east, to Sheffield in the west and Doncaster in the north.

It would get close to Energy Secretary Ed Miliband’s Doncaster North constituency.

There are already several small oil wells near Gainsborough, but Egdon said the possibility of additional gas was first uncovered in 2019 by drilling 2km deep.

Mark Abbott, CEO at Egdon, said the gas resources in the Trench “compare favourably with some of the best producing shale basins in the USA”.

He urged the Government to remove the moratorium on fracking, saying: “It would therefore seem sensible for politicians to consider in a pragmatic and fact based way, the potential security of supply, fiscal, environmental and employment benefits of developing the UK’s own resources such as those present in the Gainsborough Trough.

“In summary it is clear that domestic supplies of gas are better for jobs, Treasury receipts, energy security and emissions compared with imports.”

The discovery is set to be formally announced at the Lincolnshire Energy Conference on 25 February.

A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said: “We intend to ban fracking for good and make Britain a clean energy superpower to protect current and future generations.

“The biggest risk to our energy security is staying dependent on fossil fuel markets and only by sprinting to clean power by 2030 can the UK take back control of its energy and protect both family and national finances from price spikes.

“Through our plan for change, we will reignite our industrial heartlands as we seize the opportunities of the clean energy transition, and will continue to drive investment for businesses and communities in the UK.”