Cuadrilla Delays Lancashire Fracking

Cuadrilla Resources CEO Francis Egan has said today that the company will shelve its current plans to drill for shale in Lancashire, England, until next year.

In a news release, Mr. Egan said that an environmental impact assessment (EIA) being performed on some of its wells would mean that planned operations to frack for gas in the Bowland Shale would be delayed until 2014.

"We recognise that within the complex U.K. regulatory framework governing planning this process can prove lengthy but we are determined to spare no effort in meeting our exploration targets in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner."

The news comes a day after chairman of the company Lord Browne told the Guardian newspaper that Cuadrilla would invest whatever funds were necessary to see the success of shale exploration and production of shale gas in the U.K.

"We will finance whatever it takes. Equity finance, then debt and equity. If we really succeed, it will be billions, over 10 years it will be billions," he said.

If successful, the company stands to make about £136 million from gas recovered from the Bowland Shale, Francis Egan said last month.

Cuadrilla Resources has taken a cautious approach to hydraulic fracturing since two minor earthquakes in 2011 were revealed to have been caused by its activities on its Lancashire site. Shortly after, the U.K. government imposed a moratorium on fracking.

The fracking moratorium was lifted in December of last year.