Shale gas prospects ‘would be treated with caution’

Councillors raised questions following controversy over drilling for oil or gas between Bishop Burton and Walkington.

Permission to drill test boreholes 1.5 miles deep was granted last week, despite opposition from some residents on environmental grounds.

A report prepared for a scrutiny committee meeting today says shale gas, a natural gas, predominantly methane, could be found in the East Riding in a geological strata, called the Jurassic Lias Sub-Crop, which stretches as far north as Teeside, and far south as Dorset.

There have been no planning applications yet, but one company, Dart Energy (Europe) Ltd, has made a representation to the emerging Joint Minerals Local Plan, saying they believe there are areas in the East Riding “that are underlain by significant deep coal and shale reserves, which have the potential for unconventional gas exploration and development”.

Strategic development services manager Andy Wainwright said drilling for “unconventional” shale gas was more expensive than conventional oil and gas: “The East Riding and the East Midlands do contain potential geology that could hold reserves of shale gas, but further exploration will need to be undertaken to see if they are commercially viable. Whether it is commercially viable to exploit is dependent on the price of oil and gas.”

The past few years have seen a huge increase in shale gas exploration in the US, which is believed to have three times the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia. But major concerns have been expressed over the use of “fracking”, where water and chemicals is pumped at high pressure into rock to create fractures to release gas.

Fracking was halted at a site near Blackpool after two earthquakes. A report later concluded that future tremors could not be ruled out, but they would be too small to cause any structural damage.

A condition on the planning permission attached to the Walkington site bans the use of fracking.

Coun Symon Fraser said developers would have to convince the council the technology they used didn’t pose “significant” risks to local people, adding: “As an authority we would approach it with a great deal of caution.”