Tinker Lane

At our Tinker Lane site, situated in North Nottinghamshire near Blyth, a planning application to drill a single well along with accompanying ground water monitoring boreholes was submitted in May 2016.  In March 2017, following a recommendation by Planning Officers to grant consent, planning permission was granted, also subject to the completion of a S106 legal agreement.

This, along with our Springs Road site, will help us to understand the shale gas potential in the region and more widely. There is a pressing need to deliver lower carbon energy that is home grown, provides important energy security for the future alongside economic benefits to the local communities as well as the country as a whole. Depending on the results of these wells we may submit planning applications to carry out hydraulic fracturing in the future.

During the course of 2016 we have continued with an extensive community engagement programme in the area, with a dedicated Community Liaison representative living within the community and holding regular Community Liaison Group meetings and public events. We distributed two newsletters to over 5,000 people in the area and continue to engage with the community, businesses and other stakeholders who have an interest in these developments.

Construction of the Tinker Lane site and drilling of the stratigraphic well was completed in 2018.  The purpose of the well was to delineate the edge of the shale in the Gainsborough Trough basin and fulfil a licence obligation.  Whilst the target Bowland Shale was not present in the well, the indications of hydrocarbons encountered within the Millstone Grit Group of shales are encouraging for the potential gas resources throughout the Gainsborough Trough basin.  The well has helped to better calibrate the seismic interpretation and define the margin of the basin.  The well has now been plugged and abandoned and plans are being drawn up to fully restore the site to its former condition.  It is anticipated that this will be carried out in mid-2019.

Site construction and the drilling of the well was carried out successfully, under stringent environmental and planning conditions.  The site hosted multiple visits by the various industry regulators at different stages of the operation.  Throughout the operation there were no material breaches of any of the conditions. The site has been subject to significant environmental monitoring over the past two years, with data on noise, ground water and ground gas being regularly collected and analysed.  The analysis of this data demonstrates that the site has had no significant environmental impact during its existence and no environmental effects will remain once the site has been restored.

Please click here to see the planning application regarding Tinker Lane.

To read the latest community update leaflet, please click here.

To see a copy of the brochure from the consultation event, please click here. 

Click here to see the North Nott’s update newsletter distributed in June 2016.