Cuadrilla Resources

Cuadrilla Resources is a UK energy company based in Staffordshire. Set up in 2007 and backed by British Gas, it has been described as "the pioneer of fracking in the UK". In July 2013 it announced it was applying for planning consent to start fracking on sites in the Fylde area of Lancashire.

Activities

Cuadrilla is a UK-registered company privately owned by its management team and two investors, the Australian drilling and engineering company AJ Lucas (43%) and Riverstone LLC.

It has "some 70 staff in the UK both directly employed and through contractors, mostly based at the well sites. The main contracting partner in the UK is PR Marriott Drilling Ltd based in Chesterfield, which has over 60 years of drilling experience in Britain".

People

Management team

• Francis Egan - chief executive
• Tony Carruthers
• Matt Lambert
• Andrew Quarles Van Ufford
• Andrew Price
• Eric Vaughan - CEO
• Leon Jennings

Directors of the Board

• Mark Miller - Director, Cuadrilla Resources; Director and VP of Cuadrilla Resource Holdings. From the USA, he founded and ran Eastern Reservoir Service until 2005.
• Dennis Carlton -Director, Caudrilla Resources; Director, Cuadrilla Resource Holdings. From the USA, he founded and ran Evergreen Resources until 2004. He led the successful development of coal bed methane in Colorado; his exploits appear in Gasland
• Peter Turner Director, Cuadrilla Resources, also manages its exploration activities in mainland Europe. Turner is a former academic who headed the Petroleum Geosciences Unit at the University of Birmingham. He holds a B.Sc, a PhD and an honory D.Sc in Geology and has written over 150 publications and books. Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and the Americas.

Board

• John Browne -Cuadrilla chairman, and managing partner of Riverstone Holdings, the venture capital firm that backs it

Lobbying firms and consultants

• Bell Pottinger Public Affairs - Mark Linder

• PPS - PPS managed Cuadrilla's website in 2012-12 and produced a brochure for Cuadrilla, titled "Summer 2012 Exploring For Natural Gas Cuadrilla Resources is exploring for natural gas in Lancashire" which the Advertising Standards Authority found contained claims partially breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 and 3.3 (Misleading advertising) and 3.11 (Exaggeration).

• Hanover Communications

Consultants

• Paul Kelly - communications consultant and director of the PPS Group
• Nick Sutcliffe - communications consultant and director of the PPS Group. Sutcliffe is also politician for Guildford District Council (Conservative Councillor for Ash South & Tongham Ward).

Law firms

The Lawyer magazine reported in March 2013 that 'five-partner London firm Peachey & Co has been advising Cuadrilla, which has no in-house legal resource in the UK, from the outset. Former Slaughter and May lawyer Hubert Ashton, now a partner at Peachey, admits the past few months of exploratory digging, questions in the House and earthquakes have been “interesting”.

Affiliations

• All-Party Parliamentary Group on Unconventional Oil and Gas which received £3000 from Cuadrilla, registered June 2013
• Institute of Directors (IOD) - Cuadrilla sponsored a publication by IOD on the prospects for UK shale gas, published in May 2013

Website

Website: http://www.cuadrillaresources.com/

Resources

• James Cusick, How lobbying works – and why this Bill won’t change a fracking thing, The Independent, 18 August 2013
• Fiona Harvey, Lord Browne promises to invest 'whatever it takes' in UK fracking, guardian.co.uk, 12 March 2013 15.00 GMT
• Terry McCallister, Cuadrilla announces major fracking expansion in UK, The Guardian, Friday 5 July 2013 18.14 BST
• Robin McKie, Will fracking in Lancashire's green hills solve Britain's energy crisis?, The Observer, Sunday 7 July 2013
• Video: We will stick to fracking plan, says Cuadrilla boss, Channel4 News, YouTube