Timeline: shale gas in the UK

2014

October

• Task Force on Shale Gas set up, funded by Cuadrilla, Centrica and Total among others. Headed by Lord Chris Smith, former head of the Environment Agency. Secretariat run by giant PR and lobbying firm Edelman UK.

2015

December

• Task Force on Shale Gas - publishes final report, concluding that 'shale gas can be produced safely and usefully in the UK', and that there is 'no more risk to the public from fracking than other comparable industries'. This echoes industry and UK government's position.

2016

January

• 8: Senior executive of INEOS, Tim Pickering, reveals company’s intention to divert efforts in shale gas exploration away from Scotland, towards Cheshire and other areas of England, following significant costs of running informational community meetings.

• 12: Bailiffs evict an anti-fracking protest camp at the IGas Duttons Lane site near Chester, with the estimated involvement of 175 officers from four police forces, and nine arrests.

• 18: MP for Thirsk and Malton, Kevin Hollinrake, announces his resignation as Vice Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Unconventional Oil and Gas, following pressure from his constituents. .

• 19: Nottinghamshire County Council approves IGas’s application for up to twelve groundwater monitoring boreholes at a proposed shale gas site, despite 314 public objections to the application.

• 31: A leaked government plan from July 2015, signed by three cabinet ministers, reveals proposals to take decisions for fracking wells away from local councils were tabled shortly after Lancashire County Council refused permission to Cuadrilla to frack wells in the Fylde.

February

• 5: IGas announces it will abandon plans to drill for coal bed methane at Upton near Chester, where a protest camp was previously evicted at the cost of £200,000 to Cheshire Police.

• 8: The Police and Crime Commissioner for Cheshire demands IGas pay the costs of the operation to evict a protest camp from its exploratory gas site at Upton.

• 9: An inquiry commences considering the planning appeals by Cuadrilla against Lancashire County Council’s refusal of applications to drill up to eight fracking wells, and seismic monitoring plans, across sites at Preston New Road and Roseacre Wood.

• 23: The Planning Inspectorate grants permission to Cuadrilla for site restoration and monitoring at the Grange Hill exploration site near Singleton in Lancashire, despite Lancashire County Council refusing permission in May 2015.

March

• 15: Ryedale District Council of North Yorkshire County Council votes against Third Energy’s planning application to frack near the village of Kirby Misperton, and recommends refusal of a scheme to frack the existing KM8 well.

• 16: The closing day of the public inquiry considering the planning appeals by Cuadrilla against Lancashire County Council’s refusal of applications to drill up to eight fracking wells, and seismic monitoring plans, across sites at Preston New Road and Roseacre Wood.

• 23: Coastal Oil and Gas appeals against the refusal of its application for an exploratory test well at Hendre Farm, Llanharan, by Rhondda Cynon Taf Council.

• 24: IGas refuses requests by The Police and Crime Commissioner for Cheshire to pay for the policing costs of the anti-fracking camp eviction in Upton in January 12 2016, following the company’s abandonment of its Duttons Lane fracking site.

• 26: Carl Sargeant, the Natural Resources Minister for Wales, extends a moratorium on unconventional gas and oil developments to underground coal gasification, preventing local authorities from approving planning applications for fracking sites without referring to Welsh Ministers.

• 30: Council officers for Surry approve plans by IGas to its oil and gas production sites near Bletchingley Central, over the next fifteen years.

April

• 6: Regulations on the permissible depths of fracking wells outlined in Section 50 of the Infrastructure Act 2015 come in to force.

• 11: The Environment Agency grants Third Energy’s application for an environmental permit for its shale gas fracking site at the KM8 well in at Kirby Misperton, North Yorkshire. Third Energy is granted fracking permits for a site in North Yorkshire, GOV.uk, 11 April 2016, accessed 14 September 2016</ref>

• 27: The Energy and Climate Change Select Committee publishes a report warning that government policy sanctioning an increased use of gas fired power stations will mean the UK missing its carbon reduction targets by 2030.

• 28: A new public opinion poll conducted by the Department of Energy and Climate Change reveals support for fracking in the UK to have reached a record low.

May

• 5: INEOS sets out a timetable for its plans for seismic surveying and monitoring across three regions of England over summer 2016.

• 18: Speaking at Shale World UK Conference, the head of Cuadrilla, Francis Egan, urged the government to deliver on reducing the length of time that councils could take to decide planning applications.

• 23: North Yorkshire County Council’s planning committee formally approve Third Energy’s application to frack its existing well at Kirby Misperton in Ryedale.

• 27: UK Oil & Gas Investments announces intentions to invest £4 million in an existing exploratory fracking well in the Weald Basin, Southern England.

June

• 1: The Scottish Parliament votes in favour of a ban on fracking.

• 6: Northern Ireland legislates in favour of mandatory planning applications for any unconventional oil and gas exploration.

• 13: UK Oil and Gas Investments pays £3.5 million to acquire a Petroleum Exploration and Development Licence (PEDL) in the West Sussex Weald, in a deal with Celtique Energie and Magellan.

July

• 7: A report laid before parliament by the Committee on Climate Change calls for stronger regulations on shale gas development in order for the UK to not exceed its carbon budget.

• 8: The planning committee of Bassetlaw, north Nottinghamshire, reject an application by Dart (East England) Ltd, an IGas subsidiary company, for the development of a shale gas exploration well at Tinker Lane.

• 13: Surrey County Council backs plans by IGas to convert a shale gas exploration site near Guildford to gas production.

• 14: The government announces the abolition of the Department of Energy and Climate Change, responsible for regulations on onshore oil and gas operations.

August

• 2: The Environment Agency grants a permit to Rathlin Energy for a new fracking site at West Newton, East Yorkshire.

• 7: The Prime Minister proposes a shale wealth fund be made available to make direct payments to people affected by fracking.