UK shale setback
Lancashire County Council rejected both applications from Cuadrilla to produce gas from shale deposits deep underground in northwest England, despite receiving advice from its planning division to approve one of them
This extends the uninterrupted run of bad news that has surrounded UK shale prospects ever since Cuadrilla detected very minor tremors while carrying out hydraulic fracturing some years ago and reported them to the government. Companies who have made UK shale part of their strategy saw their share price wobble. But the problem the council seized on was not the expected risk to the environment caused by fracking but the additional traffic noise and eyesores in the countryside that the operation would entail. Nevertheless the margin of defeat was substantial and cross-party: nine against, three for and two abstentions. Responding on June 29, Cuadrilla said the council’s planning officers had “
Also in this section
18 February 2026
The global gas industry is no longer on the backfoot, hesitantly justifying the value of its product, but has greater confidence in gas remaining a core part of the global energy mix for decades
18 February 2026
With marketable supply unlikely to grow significantly and limited scope for pipeline imports, Brazil is expected to continue relying on LNG to cover supply shortfalls, Ieda Gomes, senior adviser of Brazilian thinktank FGV Energia,
tells Petroleum Economist
17 February 2026
The 25th WPC Energy Congress, taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 26–30 April 2026, will bring together leaders from the political, industrial, financial and technology sectors under the unifying theme “Pathways to an Energy Future for All”
17 February 2026
Siemens Energy has been active in the Kingdom for nearly a century, evolving over that time from a project-based foreign supplier to a locally operating multi-national company with its own domestic supply chain and workforce
