Search for shale gas heads east as IGas plans fracking in East Midlands

Fracking will take place in the East Midlands next year for the first time, under plans from shale gas explorer IGas.

Andrew Austin, IGas chief executive, told the Telegraph it was preparing to submit planning applications to drill and frack to test the flow of gas at two new locations, one either side of the Pennines.

“It is our intention to have permits in place such that we can drill and flow test wells at two sites – one in the North West and one in the East Midlands – in 2015,” he said.

The exploration in the East Midlands is likely to be largely funded by a French company – either GDF Suez or Total – both of which have bought into the search for UK shale while fracking is banned in France due to environmental concerns.

Mr Austin said that once fracking took place it planned to connect the sites up to the gas grid, supplying enough gas to fuel thousands of homes. “During testing it is anticipated that several million standard cubic feet of gas per day will be available to the grid. One million standard cubic feet a day is enough gas to meet the needs of between 8 - 12,000 typical homes,” he said.

IGas’s plans are likely to be welcomed by the Government, which hopes shale gas will bring down energy bills but which faced criticism from an influential Lords committee last month for the fact no fracking was actually taking place.

The controversial process, involving pumping water, sand and chemicals into the ground at pressure to fracture rocks, is opposed by environmental groups while residents near some sites have raised fears about disruption. One estate agent was this weekend reported as saying house prices near fracking sites could fall by at least 20 per cent.

The limited UK shale gas exploration that has taken place to date has been largely concentrated in north-west England. Just one shale gas well has been fracked, by IGas’s rival Cuadrilla, near Blackpool in 2011. The process was aborted after causing two earthquakes.

Cuadrilla and partner Centrica have since unveiled plans to frack at two more sites, both in Lancashire, next year and hope to connect first their first shale gas output to the grid by the end of next year.

IGas, which has rights to drill in areas of the north-west stretching from Lancashire to Cheshire, has been drilling to take shale rock samples – but not fracking – at Barton Moss, near Salford. It is awaiting results of tests on shale rocks at the site before deciding how to proceed there.

Unlike Cuadrilla, IGas also has rights across large areas of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. Its rights will be boosted to 1m acres through the ongoing acquisition of smaller rival Dart Energy.

GDF Suez, which is part-owned by the French state, committed to spend £16m on drilling with Dart in areas spanning from Wrexham to the East Midlands while Total, the supermajor, committed £30m to drilling in the East Midlands.

Despite the lack of fracking, protestors have already targeted other operations by Dart Energy in Nottinghamshire.

Meanwhile, Canadian-owned Rathlin Energy is planning tests on shale gas deposits in East Yorkshire this summer but has insisted it is not fracking.