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Ministers are preparing to open up large swathes of Britain to fracking with a new round of onshore oil and gas exploration licences.
The next round of licensing this summer will cover around two-thirds of Britain, including national parks and urban areas, from the Yorkshire Dales to London.
A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change stressed that shale gas firms would still have to go through a planning process before drilling in any sensitive areas. It is not the first time national parks have been available for oil and gas exploration licences, but the recent interest in shale gas has given the matter new relevance.
A spokesman for energy minister Michael Fallon told the Sunday Times: “The word fracking has a lot of baggage attached to it but it has been proven you can do it in national parks and other sensitive areas like cities without serious impacts. Such operations could fit into towns and cities, too — the sites are smaller than many other industrial activities.”
The British Geological Survey is assessing the shale gas resources in southeast England’s Weald Basinand a belt across central Scotland, for publication in the coming months.
Meanwhile, leading exploration company Cuadrilla is to lodge a planning application for two sites near Blackpool this week. Chief executive Francis Egan said the first shale gas from test wells could enter the grid in late 2015.
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