Cuadrilla Resources is a British company based in Bamber Bridge near Preston in Lancashire. It is privately owned between Australian company AJ Lucas (96%) and current and former Cuadrilla employees (4%). Where does Cuadrilla have licence to operate? Furthermore, other extractive industries – notably quarrying and deep geothermal – are not subject to the same restrictions as shale gas when it comes to induced seismicity and ground vibration. Given that we halt hydraulic fracturing activities at 0.5 ML, we are confident that our operations will not result in a level of seismicity that would be of a significant enough magnitude to cause damage. Why do Cuadrilla want the traffic light system reviewed? Petroleum Exploration and Development Licences (PEDLs) are issued by the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA). The licences give operators exclusive rights to explore for and extract oil and gas in a specific area but not the right to drill. Please see our Frequently Asked Questions ( FAQs) for a wide variety of further information on how seismicity is created and regulated, as well as many other topics including the process of fracturing and environmental regulation and responsibility. You can also watch a short video we produced with the assistance of Liverpool University, this video shows what micro-seismicity looks like.

Local people should be reassured that any resulting ground motion will be far below anything that could cause harm or damage and is likely to be much less than caused daily by other industries such as quarrying or construction or even heavy goods vehicles travelling on our roads. The work will be completed by the end of November and followed by flow testing of the well, with gas flow results expected early in 2020. Once permissions have been obtained from the relevant regulators, all relevant consultees have been notified and permits are in pace, the OGA is responsible for issuing a consent to drill. For the regulation of flaring, see the Department for Energy and Climate Change’s Onshore oil and gas exploration in the UK: regulation and best practice which is available at here. Does Cuadrilla have an emergency plan? You may also find our ePortal of interest which details key data in relation to traffic movements. QUESTIONS FROM THE COMMUNITY What are the benefits of Shale Gas?The EA assess the risk to the environment and will not issue permits if the level of risk is assessed as unacceptable. They also give members of the public the opportunity to raise any issues they think they should consider through an open consultation. Operators must meet all baseline monitoring requirements set out in planning permission and environmental permits before drilling can begin and must also notify the environmental regulator of their intention to drill. Safety and well design On health risks, Public Health England published a comprehensive study on shale gas operations in 2014, concluding that: “An assessment of the currently available evidence indicates that the potential risks to public health from exposure to the emissions associated with shale gas extraction will be low if the operations are properly run and regulated”, see here. HOW IS SHALE GAS COMPATIBLE WITH MEETING THE UK’S CLIMATE CHANGE TARGETS? Proppant (sand) which is used to keep the fractures in the shale open once the hydraulic pressure has been released; and Cornelius resigned from Cuadrilla in 2014, after Lord Browne, former chief of the oil company BP, took over the chairmanship. Browne left in 2015. The company declined the opportunity to comment on Cornelius’s views. The operator must notify the HSE of the well design and operation plans at least 21 days before drilling is due to start. Consent to drill

Seismicity is regulated at PNR by the Oil and Gas Authority using a ‘traffic light system’. You can read more about this here. Appraisal – following data appraisal, operators may flow test the well before making further commercial decisions. This may involve undertaking one or more hydraulic fracturing procedures. Appraisal stage will typically require additional planning consent and a full environmental impact assessment. The purpose of exploration is to establish exactly how much gas a well could produce. Cuadrilla retained Anderson Thompson, a team of reservoir engineers, geoscientists and hydraulic fracturing specialists, to undertake analytical research on likely gas recovery volumes from horizontal wells to be drilled in the Lancashire Bowland shale. Anderson Thompson has broad international basin experience and specialist knowledge of the Permian, Eagle Ford, Bakken, Marcellus and Montney shale plays in North America. ensuring appropriate treatment and management of any naturally occurring radioactive materials “NORM”); Peak Particle Velocity (PPV) provides an equivalent ground motion calculation about the impact felt at surface.The University of Liverpool released a report in 2018 to help put the low-level threshold of the Traffic Light System into context. The researchers indicated that vibrations experienced during everyday life are equivalent, or exceed, those that may occur from induced seismicity during hydraulic fracturing operations. You can view the paper here. Questions about PEDLS What is a PEDL? Once the gas is released in the tiny fractures, held open by the grains of sand, the gas travels up the well to surface. When the hydraulic fracturing is completed the flow rate of natural gas produced from each well is tested over period of approximately six months. Very small movements will be detected due to the highly sophisticated monitoring system in place at PNR. The British Geological Survey (BGS), which monitors seismicity at PNR, has published comprehensive information here. In particular the BGS says: Cuadrilla was the first operator to work within the micro-seismic Traffic Light System (TLS), regulated by the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) and as a result have a unique data set of information and operating experience.