Cuadrilla’s CEO Egan Receives Death Threat Over Shale Activities

Francis Egan, chief executive of Cuadrilla Resources, claimed that anti-fracking campaigners sent him death threats, while the protest continues in Balcombe, West Sussex. 

“This week, I received an anonymous email saying that unless Cuadrilla ceased its activities in the UK, we would soon receive pipe bombs delivered by express mail to our premises. ‘Fracking kills,’ the message said, and ‘so do we’,” reads his intervention on the Daily Mail on Sunday.

The protest continues in Balcombe, with over 250 people intervening in the Blockade. In the last two weeks, more than 30 people have been arrested in West Sussex, mainly on suspicion of obstructing deliveries.

At the same time, Cuadrilla reports on its website that it is intentioned to remain engaged in community consultation while proceeding with its plan in the UK. The company plans to drill and take samples of the underground rock in a vertical well drilled to approximately 3,000 feet.

“A possible horizontal leg of 2,5000 feet may also be drilled from the vertical well, dependent on the results of sampling in the vertical. Neither the vertical nor the horizontal well will be hydraulically fracture,” reads a note released by the company in May.

Despite the intention to limit the use of hydraulic fracturing, the public resistance remains, with several villages across the UK stating that they would block any attempts to drill. Oil and gas onshore exploration is not a new phenomenon though.

“It is worth noting that more than 50 oil and gas exploration or production wells already exist in Sussex alone,” said Egan to the Daily Mail.