Cuadrilla has received approval from the UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to hydraulically fracture the first of two horizontal wells it has drilled at Preston New Road in Lancashire (OGJ Online, July 17, 2018).
Its PNR 1/1Z will be the first onshore horizontal well to be hydraulically fractured in the UK, where the completion technique meets stiff opposition and is suspended or banned in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
The well was drilled to 2,273-2,341-m TVD with a 782-m lateral in Carboniferous Lower Bowland shale.
Cuadrilla applied to inject slickwater and sand in as many as 41 frac stages with up to 765 cu m/stage of frac fluid and 75 tonnes/stage of proppant.
It will use microseismic monitoring from an observation well.
Cuadrilla Chief Executive Officer Francis Egan said the company will submit a fracture-consent application to the BEIS for the second Preston New Road well.