Yorkshire Post: ‘Give local communities a better deal for hosting a shale gas well’, MP urges

COMMUNITIES which host a shale gas well should be given a better financial deal, according to an MP who is asking residents whether they back fracking in East Yorkshire. 

Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart’s move comes amid controversy over further exploration of wells at West Newton, near Aldbrough and Crawberry Hill, at Walkington.

Canadian-owned Rathlin Energy (UK) has applied for permission to carry out a so-called “mini fall-off test”, also known as a “mini frac”, as part of investigations at the two conventional wells.

It denies it is “fracking or testing” for shale gas.

But its application states that the test will take place at 2,677m down at Walkington, and 3,055m at West Newton, in layers of rock with “extremely low permeability” which “require mechanical intervention to enhance its permeability”.

It says the information gathered “will help determine whether the formation is capable of being hydraulically fractured.”  MORE