Speaking to Utility Week, EUA chief executive Mike Foster said the decision will allow the fracking firm to “actually assess whether there is a commercial industry potential” for shale in the UK.
“We’ll actually see whether the flow rates that can be recovered can be sustainable and it’s not just potential gas reserves that are underground, but realisable gas reserves,” he said. “There’s a big difference and you need to have this exploratory work done well in advance.”
Foster said he found it “difficult to understand objectors who didn’t want the exploration to be done”.
“If the tests and the exploration came back and said it’s not a viable industry, then they wouldn’t have shale gas and fracking in their area,” he added. “The same people who argue that shale gas exploration in the UK poses environmental threats will make the same arguments about the testing that’s done, so it’s whether you believe those arguments.”
The EUA believes the Council’s decision will “bring into sharper focus” the debate about shale in the UK.
“If the potential is there and can be realised, the big question that everybody who wants to make a contribution in this debate should ask themselves is where else are they going to get the gas from,” Foster said.
“It’s not in the North Sea Continental Shelf as it has been for a generation. If they want to get it from Qatar and from Russia, then people should put their hand up and say that’s what they’d prefer,” he added.
“If they want to see it generated in the United Kingdom and the revenues earned from that work stay within the United Kingdom and the tax raised used in the United Kingdom, then I think that’s a very powerful argument.”
Planning officials at the Council yesterday recommended that Cuadrilla receive planning consent to extract shale gas at its Preston New Road site in Lancashire, marking the first time a council has backed an application for fracking since the government’s temporary ban.
The recommendation could pave the way for full approval following next week’s council vote.
Cuadrilla’s other site, Roseacre Wood, has been recommended for refusal due to the impact operations would have on traffic.