A small energy company has become the second firm to apply for a licence to frack for gas in Britain, submitting an application for a site in the Vale of Pickering in Yorkshire. Just days after the new energy secretary, Amber Rudd, expressed her support for hydraulic fracturing, Third Energy has applied to use the controversial technique at a well at Kirby Misperton, about 25 miles from York, near Malton in Ryedale. The site is close to the Flamingo Land theme park and holiday resort.

Protests against Third Energy’s plans have already been launched by local residents under the banner “Frack Free Ryedale”. Chris Redston of the group told his local newspaper: “We will be vigorously opposing the application.”

Friends of the Earth has also expressed its opposition, but Third Energy said it was confident that it could proceed in a safe way, although any immediate rewards have diminished owing to the slump in oil and gas prices.



“We know that the gas is present, but it is only by actually hydraulically stimulating the rock that we can understand the potential of the gas to flow and the likely volumes that can be produced,” said the operations director at Third Energy, John Dewar. “We are proud of our 20-year history of safe and low-key operations in North Yorkshire, and this project is designed to continue in the same way.”

The company said gas extracted during the testing phase would be used to produce electricity at a nearby gas-fired power station, but if significant amounts were found, the gas would be sold to the National Grid. Local planning officers are expected to take up to 13 weeks to decide whether or not to recommend that fracking gets the go ahead. A full council decision will follow later.

Third Energy’s well is located in the Bowland shale formation, which, experts estimate, contains the bulk of Britain’s shale gas resources. A British Geological Survey published a long-awaited report on shale in 2013 that suggested that an area stretching from Lancashire to Yorkshire and down to Lincolnshire could hold at least 1,300 trillion cubic feet of gas. However, deployment of the fracking technology required to release the gas has proved slow because of local planning delays and protests by environmental campaigners arguing about safety and climate change concerns.

Cuadrilla Resources, which has pioneered the first shale wells in recent times, expects to hear next month whether it has won permission to frack two wells in the north-west of Britain.

Rudd told the Sunday Times last weekend that she was determined to push forward with shale and even allow extraction under national parks. However, Rudd also promised that such activities would be tightly regulated. “We have protected groundwater source areas and [prevented] national park drilling. I will make sure that we go out of our way to demonstrate to people the safety elements of it,” she said.

Some larger energy companies, such as the Switzerland-based chemicals group Ineos, which owns the Grangemouth refinery in Scotland, want to replicate in Britain the US shale revolution, which has helped cut local energy prices drastically.



Jim Ratcliffe, the Ineos chairman, said last November that he wanted to invest almost £650m in fracking, turning the UK into a major shale gas producer. He has promised to give 6% of all revenues to local communities. “I want Ineos to be the biggest player in the UK shale gas industry. I believe shale gas could revolutionise UK manufacturing, and I know Ineos has the resources to make it happen, the skills to extract the gas safely, and the vision to realise that everyone must share in the rewards.”

The price of oil has halved over the last 12 months, while gas prices have also slumped. This has caused financial problems for some of the shale companies in the US. There have been at least a dozen bankruptcy filings in recent months, and more than a dozen have defaulted on bond payments or warned investors of challenging times ahead, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.