Fracking at site near Blackpool will restart this morning, operator Cuadrilla confirms

Fracking is due to restart at Cuadrilla's site near Blackpool this morning after it was halted by an earth tremor last night, it has been confirmed.
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The company would not say whether it had already got under way and would not give a time for the restart.

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Fracking halted after tremor near Blackpool

But a Cuadrilla spokesperson said today: “We are going to be starting up hydraulic operations this morning. We don’t have an exact time.”

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A seismic event with a magnitude of 0.4 on the Richter Scale was detected in Lancashire yesterday close to where the energy firm is fracking for gas in shale rock.

Because it coincided with pumping operations at the Preston New Road site, and appears to have occurred within Cuadrilla’s operational boundary, this is considered an Amber event in accordance with the Traffic Light System of safety monitoring.

Cuadrilla said it had “adopted extra caution” and stopped fracking for the day.

A spokesman for Frack Free Lancashire said: “Frack Free Lancashire is greatly concerned about these seismic events. It is most alarming for residents. Considering this is only the exploratory phase and only one frack a day imagine how much worse it could be.

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“Who knows what is happening under our feet? This is the earth giving out a warning, as predicted by geologists following the previous failures of fracking in Lancashire.

“The increased risk of larger magnitude quakes is serious. Cuadrilla must stop now, for all our sakes.”