Police arrest protesters at Cuadrilla site

Sussex Police this afternoon began arresting protesters outside a Cuadrilla oil well as part of an operation to enable the firm to gain access to the site outside the West Sussex village of Balcombe.

Cuadrilla had scheduled to deliver a drilling rig to the site on Tuesday to begin exploratory work on the site, which already contains an oil well drilled by Conoco in 1986.

However, concerns that the exploratory work might lead to the hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, technique used in shale oil and gas development led local villagers and outsider protest groups such as “Frack Off” to unite and block the entrance to the site.

A Cuadrilla spokesman said: “Cuadrilla’s forthcoming activity at Balcombe is for exploratory drilling only and is a temporary operation that will not include hydraulic fracturing. Should Cuadrilla wish to undertake further activity, it will need to apply for new permissions and licences from the relevant regulatory authorities.”

Following Sussex Police’s operation this afternoon, trucks and drilling equipment have begun rolling into the site.

However, such a well-organised and high-profile protest - albeit only delaying operations for three days - shows the huge challenge facing those companies seeking to develop onshore oil and gas sites in the UK.

Despite research from the University of Nottingham showing that public attitudes to shale are improving, with 55% of respondents to a survey agreeing that development should be allowed, huge fears over the safety of fracking techniques remain.

In particular, fears over the potential for pollution of water supply have been raised not only by green protest groups but also the water industry. Water UK policy and business adviser Dr Jim Marshall last week claimed that many water companies were “generally as unsighted about the impacts of shale gas as other members of society”.

Last year, UK fracking was put on hold by the government after Cuadrilla drilling operations caused a number of minor earthquakes. The moratorium was subsequently lifted in December.

The UK has a very different geography to the US and is more densely populated so planning issues and protests are likely to affect the extent and speed of take-up for Shale recovery

Rockwell Automation UK sales manager for Industries Martin Walder

Institute of Directors senior economic adviser Corin Taylor, who recently authored a report called Getting shale gas working, told Process Engineering that developers were approaching a “confidence hurdle” that they needed to get over as soon as possible.

“There hasn’t been any drilling since the moratorium was lifted,” said Taylor.

“Drilling needs to start happening and there needs to be strong community engagement from industry. There are currently 2,000 onshore oil and gas well drilled in the UK and roughly 10% of those have been fracked. The public needs to be made aware about the huge amount of safety controls and how heavily regulated this activity is, and once more drilling takes place those concerns about safety are likely to fall further down the agenda.”

He added that the problem of opposition to development is common to many sectors in the UK, from housing to transport, and once safety concerns were dealt with most planning issues tended to focus on local issues such as levels of traffic.

He cited development of a new nuclear plant at Hinkley Point as an example where there were no objections with regards to the safety of the nuclear reactor itself, but locals were concerned about levels of noise and the number lorries that would pass through the area during construction.

Rockwell Automation UK sales manager for Industries Martin Walder, whose firm is a leading supplier of control systems for fracking operations in the US, said the geography of the UK meant developments in this country were bound to face opposition. This could limit the opportunities for suppliers into the market, he said.

“Clearly shale development in the UK is an opportunity,” said Walder.

“However, the UK has a very different geography [to the US] and is more densely populated so planning issues and protests are likely to affect the extent and speed of take-up for Shale recovery, but we are talking to a number of developers.”