UK shale operators receive licensing fee compensation: press
The UK government has returned £640,000 ($842,600) in pre-paid licensing fees to England's shale gas acreage holders, i Newspaper reported March 25.
There is no UK legal requirement to refund pre-paid licensing fees, but shale licence holders can now apply for discretionary payments through a rental waiver from the newly-named North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA).
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"Licensees can apply for a rental waiver to the NSTA," a spokesperson said. "The NSTA considers these requests and not all waivers are granted. Any successful requests require Her Majesty's Treasury confirmation." i Newspaper cited a Freedom of Information data request made to the NSTA by the New Scientist.
Shale activity in England was placed under a moratorium in 2019, with the country's only two shale wells at Cuadrilla Resources' pilot site near Blackpool due to be closed and filled with cement on June 30. However, Boris Johnson's government has left the door open to a policy change and regulators say Cuadrilla could apply for a one-year extension, i Newspaper said.
The business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng told the UK parliament on March 9 "it didn't necessarily make sense" to cascade concrete over the shale wells as they couldn't then be reopened, despite regulators having instructed Cuadrilla to permanently plug and abandon the project.
On the eve of its 2014 onshore licensing round, the UK had expected as many as 150 shale permit applications including bids from several major energy firms, according to the Guardian. INEOS, Cuadrilla and iGas are among the companies to have bet on UK shale projects, and their applications will have produced sunk costs.
The ban was implemented in 2019 after tremors were recorded at the Blackpool pilot, which regulators said had "unacceptable" effects on local communities. Cuadrilla compared the tremor to a "large bag of shopping dropping on the floor", claiming it registered at 1.55 Richter scale local magnitude.