Legal expert: Yorks project should be considered fracking
North Yorkshire Council is being urged to reject a planning application from a fossil fuel company that would use a form of fracking to explore for gas at Burniston, near the North York Moors National Park.
Friends of the Earth has obtained legal advice from Estelle Dehon KC, one of the UK’s leading environmental barristers. The environmental justice campaigners oppose the gas project, and on Friday 26 June filed a further objection, enclosing a written opinion from Ms Dehon KC. This written opinion confirms that the proposed exploration technique, ‘‘the proppant squeeze”, qualifies as fracking under relevant planning policy.
Europa Oil and Gas Ltd, the company behind the application, has said in some of the supporting documents to its proposal, that the proppant squeeze does not constitute fracking. It claims the technique is different, and is long-established, safe, and outside the current government moratorium.
But Friends of the Earth is arguing, by reference to the legal opinion of Ms Dehon KC, that whilst the technique is not covered by the moratorium, it is misleading to suggest that it is not a type of fracking when it comes to planning policy. And it is planning policy which must guide the council’s decision.
Friends of the Earth has also pointed out that the volume of fluid involved in the proposed proppant squeeze at the Burniston site, near Scarborough, is greater than the daily amount used during fracking operations at Preston New Road in 2019, in the 7-day period running up to a 2.9 magnitude earthquake. That event led to the existing moratorium on fracking in England.
Friends of the Earth’s senior lawyer, Katie de Kauwe, said:
“This fossil fuel proposal shines a spotlight on the glaring loophole in the existing fracking moratorium. The government must close it as a matter of urgency.
“Fracking is deeply unpopular with local communities. It is absolutely essential that both the planning authority and the public know exactly what type of development this is, so that it doesn’t sneak in through the back door.
“The writing is on the wall for new gas and oil projects. The government’s new climate plan, due later this year, must set out a clear and ambitious path to a future free from fossil fuels.
“With key international climate talks only months away, the UK needs to show leadership on climate action. We cannot expect other countries to end their fossil fuel reliance if we continue to greenlight new projects at home.”
Local resident and retired headteacher, Jenny Hartley, who’s on the steering group for Frack Free Coastal Communities, said:
“It’s deeply disturbing that we are having the wool pulled over our eyes about a fossil fuel development in our community.
“There must be transparency in the decision-making process. This is fracking, pure and simple – and it should be described as such in the planning process, so local people know exactly what is being proposed.
“Fracking is risky, unpopular and unnecessary. We urge the council to reject this proposal.”
The proposal
Europa Oil and Gas Ltd is seeking to extract gas from a site at Burniston, a few miles north of Scarborough in North Yorkshire. The proppant squeeze process - part of the initial exploration and monitoring drilling methodology before the final extraction phase - involves injecting a fluid and proppant, a granular substance like sand, into the rock formation at high pressure.
The company says its proposal “does not relate to fracking”, that “proppant squeezes’, are not fracking as defined in the Petroleum Act” and it “is a proven safe operational technique, which has been used on wells for decades in the UK and, unlike fracking (high volume fracturing), is approved for use in the industry.”
However, in its letter to North Yorkshire Council (NYC) Friends of the Earth warns that this is an incorrect distinction to make and has the potential to be misleading.
While it is true that ‘proppant squeeze’ currently falls outside of the government’s moratorium on fracking - a loophole that urgently needs to be closed – the legal advice obtained by Friends of the Earth from Ms Dehon KC makes it clear that:
“the type of fracking defined in the Petroleum Act is not the definition used in key, relevant planning policy. And that planning policy must be considered by NYC when determining this application”.
Failure to regard the proposal as a type of fracking, Ms Dehon says, also “undermines effective public engagement with and scrutiny of the environmental impacts of the proposal, including seismicity risks.”
The Oil and Gas Authority (now North Sea Transition Authority) has previously concluded that “it is not yet possible to accurately predict the seismic response to hydraulic fracturing, if any, in relation to variables such as site characteristics, fluid volume, rate or pressure. Where induced seismicity has occurred, mitigation measures have shown only limited success, and there can only be low confidence in their effectiveness currently.”
Friends of the Earth is urging North Yorkshire Council to reject planning permission for a multitude of reasons. As well as seismicity risks, these include:
- The pressing urgency for action on the climate crisis.
- The need for the UK to show global leadership on this issue. If the UK is calling for other countries to end fossil fuel extraction, we cannot at the same time be greenlighting further projects ourselves.
ENDS
Notes:
- Friends of the Earth has written to the North Yorkshire Council about the legal opinion. Our letter and the written opinion have been posted on the council’s planning portal. Planning Register | North Yorkshire County Council (see “Documents” at bottom of the page).
- Friends of the Earth has considerable experience in resisting fossil fuel projects. Alongside South Lakes Action on Climate Change, the NGO successfully challenged the granting of planning permission for the Whitehaven coal mine: Judgment on the Whitehaven coal mine: September 2024 legal briefing | Friends of the Earth
- Friends of the Earth also intervened in support of Sarah Finch and the Weald Action Group's successful legal challenge against the Horse Hill oil development in Surrey: Supreme Court judgment on Horse Hill oil | Friends of the Earth
- Estelle Dehon KC was co-lead counsel for Sarah Finch in the Horse Hill case, and was also lead counsel for South Lakes Action on Climate Change (SLACC) in the Whitehaven coal mine planning inquiry and subsequent legal challenge.
- Frack Free Coastal Communities are a North Yorkshire action group to oppose a planning application to explore and drill for gas beneath the heritage coastline close to the village of Burniston: https://www.frackfreecoastalcommunities.co.uk/