Cuadrilla boss pleads for fairer treatment after good results at Lancashire fracking site

The chief executive of Britain’s first fracker has called on the government to review its limits on earthquakes caused by drilling.

Francis Egan said his company, and other shale gas explorers, were being treated unfairly when compared to other industries, which are allowed to cause much more violent tremors.

Read more: Jim Ratcliffe: Government's shale policy is an 'unworkable' mess

Frackers have to stop drilling immediately if they measure local tremors of 0.5 on the Richter Scale, around 30 times lower than industries such as quarrying and construction. It is also much lower than the 4.0 allowed in the US.

It is part of the traffic light system, introduced by the government after public concern over shale exploration.

However, the industry argues that this was only ever intended as a temporary measure until enough data could be gathered to assess the risks.

“We have acquired almost 40,000 micro-seismic data points during hydraulic fracturing operations […] We believe this to be the most comprehensive micro-seismic data set ever collected at a shale gas well anywhere in the world,” Egan said.

The company reported “encouraging” results from the UK’s first ever horizontal shale well yesterday. It said it had found flows of over 200,000 standard cubic feet per day at peak.

“The natural gas beneath Preston New Road could help secure our domestic gas supply,” Egan said.

Cuadrilla said it had asked the Oil and Gas Authority to review the traffic light system.

Egan said: “All we ask now is that we are treated fairly, with comparable seismic and ground vibration levels to similar industries in Lancashire and elsewhere in the UK who are able to work safely but more effectively with significantly higher thresholds for seismicity and ground vibration.”

Read more: Cuadrilla suspends fracking at Lancashire site after tremors

His comments come days after Britain’s richest man Sir Jim Ratcliffe accused the government of “slippery back door manoeuvres” to kill off the UK shale industry.

“The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy seems to lack a basic understanding of the Richter Scale,” he said.