Cuadrilla's new sites on the Fylde

The hot news this week is that Cuadrilla have announced two new drilling sites in Lancashire. Thus far, the drilling done by Cuadrilla, IGas, Viking and others has been exploratory, with the intention of taking core samples and well logs.

This represents the first time that company has announced plans to actually conduct hydraulic stimulations (i.e., "fracking") in shales since 2011, when Cuadrilla induced small earthquakes at their first Lancashire site.

This story has been all over the news, and there's not a lot I can add at this moment. The purpose of this blog is simply to draw attention to a rather neat little feature that Cuadrilla have created - interactive viewers that enable you to see what the site will look like before, during and after production. You can see these panoramics for Roseacre Wood and Preston New Road. I've done similar posts, using google street view to look at drilling sites in the US - both in Fort Worth and Los Angeles. Clearly the PR guys at Cuadrilla have been getting their ideas from FrackLand!

Perhaps the only thing missing from the Cuadrilla panoramics is the tent city for the protestors surrounding the site.