Third Energy to halt shale gas project in Kirby Misperton until completion of approval process

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Third Energy has postponed plans to frack for shale gas at a site in North Yorkshire until the autumn.

The village that took on the frackers Read more

The company had expected to complete test fracks at its KM8 well in the village of Kirby Misperton late last year, but the process was delayed as it waited for final approval from the government.

In January, after the business secretary, Greg Clark, ordered an assessment of the financial resilience of Third Energy before deciding whether to give it the go-ahead, the company decided to let contractors remove some of the equipment from the site.

Campaigners have since packed up their protest camp, saying they no longer believed the project – which had been expected to be the first UK fracking operation for more than six years – would proceed in the near future.

While Third Energy has said fracking will still happen “on completion of the approval process”, it has been confirmed it will not go ahead until the autumn.

The company said on Wednesday it had decided to release further equipment from the site while the financial resilience review was taking place.

It said it would reduce the visual impact for the community by removing part of a sound barrier and reopening a temporarily closed footpath.

Alan Linn, Third Energy’s chief operating officer, said: “As we work through the final government approvals for the fracking project we think it is very important that residents in the Kirby Misperton area see their lives return to normal.

“We consider reopening the footpath and significantly reducing the height of the sound barrier are positive steps towards this.”

He called on activists camping on the road verges to follow the lead of the protest camp and leave the area, and for campaigners to clean up the areas they had occupied.

Third Energy’s plans are part of efforts by several companies to kickstart the shale gas industry in the UK, amid hopes it will bolster the economy, jobs and energy security.

Opponents of fracking fear the procedure can cause earthquakes, pollute water, lead to damaging development in the countryside and hit house prices. They say it is not compatible with targets to cut the use of fossil fuels to tackle climate change.

Hannah Martin, the head of energy at Greenpeace, said: “In the six years since the first well was fracked, the fracking industry has supplied less than 0% of the UK’s energy demand – despite ministers overruling local democracy, changing planning law, restricting homeowners’ property rights and trying unsuccessfully to sell fracking to communities.

“If the government put this level of support behind any of the clean energy technologies which will be dominating this century, we could be a world leader. Instead, we have two muddy fields with holes in them.”