In 2021 Frack Free East Yorkshire merged with, and changed our name to, Fossil Free East Yorkshire.
Our new website is: fossilfreeeastyorkshire.org
But this old Frack F.E.Y. website remains as a campaign resource, now here on this domain: frack.fossilfreeeastyorkshire.org
We are at the heart of a Northern Sacrifice Zone
From the North York Moors to the Peak District, from Derby to York and all the way out to the coast, the north of England is being sacrificed to the oil and gas industry for increasingly extreme fossil fuel extraction.
The Threat
Fracking is extreme fossil fuel extraction, such as hydraulic fracturing, coal bed methane, and underground coal gasification. It can involve vast amounts of water, pressures extreme enough to fracture rock, toxic chemicals and waste, setting fire to coal seams underground, and industrialisation of the countryside on a massive scale. It is unlike anything the UK has seen before.
Impacts from fracking include:
- water consumption
- air pollution
- water contamination
- methane leaks
- industrialisation of rural areas on a massive scale
- requires 1000s of wells in our region alone
- rigs, pumps, tanks, pipelines & compressor stations
- thousands of HGV movements on country roads & increased accidents
- toxic chemicals & support industries
- disposal of toxic & radioactive waste frack fluids
- serious & widespread human & animal health impacts
- noise & light pollution with 24/7 drilling
- corporate profit over community costs
- negatively affects other industries such as agriculture and tourism
- well failure is likely, & increases with time
- abandoned wells & clean up costs
- property blight & falling house prices
- earthquakes, subsidence & road damage
- inadequate regulation; regulators facing huge budget cuts
- dangerous working conditions
- and most seriously of all, climate change
The following pages explain more, and give evidence of the horrendous impacts already suffered by communities in other parts of the world.
We explain the local situation, and what you can do about it. If we take action now, together we can stop this industry, conserve our countryside, and keep East Yorkshire Frack Free.
East Yorkshire
Virtually the whole of East Yorkshire and the Yorkshire Wolds has now been licensed for gas field development.
Almost all our region is subject to the exploitation of fossil fuels by increasingly extreme methods. Green areas are licensed to Cuadrilla Resources, orange to Ineos, brown to Europa and the pink area around Hull and Holderness to Rathlin Energy.
In December 2015 the Oil & Gas Authority announced new on-shore exploration licences.
Green blocks on the map above have been awarded to infamous fracking company Cuadrilla.
Further north, Orange blocks go to large licence holder Ineos.
The beautiful Yorkshire Wolds, across the north of East Yorkshire, are a prospective shale area. Companies hope to extract shale gas from here by High Volume Hydraulic Fracturing.
The Brown blocks around Goole go to Europa Oil & Gas. This area is prospective for Coal Bed Methane.
Around Hull and covering Holderness, an existing licence is held by Rathlin Energy, part of the pink area. They claim, rather unconvincingly, to only be interested in conventional extraction. They attempted a mini-frack on the Bowland shale in 2014, which went wrong. Their test program was a catalogue of mishaps.
Existing Wells
Rathlin Energy (UK) Ltd have 3 wellsites in East Yorkshire. Their Licence block (PEDL183) stretches from Brough, Beverley & Hornsea to Spurn point.
West Newton A – this wellsite had serious problems with a mini-frack test program, including an emergency well shutdown, ongoing gas leaks, and 19 breaches of their EA Permit. The first well has been mothballed; a second well was drilled in 2019 and flow testing commenced, but was then suspended. more…
West Newton B – despite serious incidents at West Newton A, a couple of hundred of objections, and increasing alarm about the climate emergency, East Riding of Yorkshire Council unanimously granted Rathlin Energy planning permission for a 3rd wellsite in 2015. West Newton B is a much larger site a couple of kilometres south of West Newton A. After years of delays they drilled a well in 2020, but it missed the target, so they tried a sidetrack, but that suffered “formation damage”, so they had to abandoned it. They have plans for 8 more wells … more..
West Newton C & D are wellsites planned nearby … more…
Crawberry Hill – abandoned in August 2015, and has been restored to field. It was drilled in 2012 and tests, including a mini-frack on the Bowland Shale, were planned for 2014 but not possible due to ongoing protests. more…
Humber Bridge