Incentives promised to residents
in way of
fracking

Fracking – the hydraulic fracturing of rock with high-pressure liquid to release gas – was suspended in 2011 for 18 months after two small tremors hit the Fylde coast in Lancashire.

But Energy Minister Michael Fallon gave enthusiastic backing to an “exciting new potential energy resource” which could “contribute to our energy security, increase investment, create tax revenues, and generate significant income for local communities.”

Tax breaks and a more streamlined planning process were announced as the British Geological Survey suggested there could be as much as 1,300 trillion cubic feet in the Bowland shale, stretching from northern Wales to the North York Moors, including areas around Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster and surrounding Harrogate, York and Scarborough.

Exploratory conventional drilling for gas or oil has just finished at Crawberry Hill, near Walkington. Asked whether they were likely to “frack” in future, a spokesman for Rathlin Energy (UK) Ltd said there was a one in 10 chance of making a viable find and they were still carrying out analysis and “can’t say whether fracking is an option or not.”

Ken Cronin, chief executive of the UK Onshore Operators Group, said developing 100 sites, on less than five acres each, could create 75,000 jobs.

He added: “We have been saying for a long time that we need to make sure that the communities that host these sites benefit from the success of these sites.”

Opponents, however, warn that as well as causing earthquakes, fracking can pollute water supplies and blight the countryside.

But Dr Mike Rogerson, of the University of Hull, said the UK was one of world’s most tectonically stable places.

“If you frack the earth you will generate a little earthquake but it is going to so small you wouldn’t notice it.”

He cited the astonishing success in the US developing shale gas – but doubted the same would happen here because of stricter planning rules and environmental concerns.

He added: “I can’t imagine we will become Dallas overnight.”