Plans by Ineos Shale for core-well drilling in the East Midlands of England have met resistance from local officials.
Planning committee members of the Derbyshire County Council voted 9-1 to reject a recommendation that the test be approved.
Ineos Shale proposes to drill the vertical well to 2,400 m adjacent to Bramleymoor Lane near the village of Marsh Lane to test suitability of subsurface shale for hydraulic fracturing (OGJ Online, Mar. 14, 2017).
The rejected report, by council planners, found that the Ineos proposal would be acceptable under “strict planning controls related to dust, ecology, the impact on roads and traffic, archaeology, lighting, and noise.”
A decision on the Ineos application will be made under appeal following a public inquiry starting on June 19.
Ron Coyle, chief executive officer of Ineos Shale, called the move a “bad decision” and noted that the goal of the proposed well is knowledge.
“The fact that it may help to make decisions about potential unconventional gas extraction sometime in the future should not change the fact that this was an application for a simple core-bore well and no more,” he said.
