Cuadrilla did not complete the fracking of a well because it was forced to stop after breaching the seismic limit

Officials have no plans to allow shale gas firms to create bigger earthquakes, despite fracking being “highly unlikely” to be a commercial success unless tremors that can be felt at the surface are permitted.

Cuadrilla admitted yesterday that it had failed to complete the fracking of a well in Lancashire because it had repeatedly been forced to stop after breaching the seismic limit. It injected less than 14 per cent of the sand it had planned to use to prop open tiny fractures in the rock more than a mile below the site near Blackpool, and was able to fracture properly only two out of 41 sections of the well.

Francis Egan, chief executive of Cuadrilla, told The Times that its tests showed there was