Lancashire Fracking Threat: Keeping Tabs On Cuadrilla’s Drilling Rig
Additional Information
For more information related to Cuadrilla’s fracking plans see the following:
With the much delayed construction of Cuadrilla Resources flagship frack-pad at Preston New Road in Lancashire in its final stages, attention is turning to the status and location of the equipment which Cuadrilla will need for the next, drilling, phase of it fracking project. A key component, the drilling rig, almost certainly PR Marriott Rig 50, along with large amounts of other equipment is located at PR Marriott’s yard in Danesmoor near Chesterfield in Derbyshire.
The drilling rig, along with the smaller PR Marriott Rig 16 (which has mainly been used to drill shallower coalbed methane wells), is fully assembled in the yard, as of Sun 4th June 2017 (see photo below). At some point Rig 50 is likely to be packed down and moved on dozens of HGV’s to Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road site in Lancashire. This process could well take several days to a week or more and spotting the initial activity at Danesmoor could give communities in Lancashire vital warning of Cuadrilla’s next assault.
Anyone living in the East Midlands can show solidarity with threatened communities in Lancashire by helping to keep tabs on the drilling rig. Let us know (email outreach@frack-off.org or phone 07858 614861) with updates of any activity at the Danesmoor Yard. Groups in the East Midlands could also hold solidarity demos outside the yard.
PR Marriott Yard In Danesmoor With Rig 50 Fully Erected, Sun 4th June 2017 (Click For Larger Version)
If you live in Clay Cross, North Wingfield, Lower Pilsley, Pilsley, Morton, Stonebroom or Stretton you are walking distance from the site. If you live close to the M1 between Chesterfield and Nottingham it’s just a short drive away. The red tops of the drilling rigs are highly visible at some distance. If you’re walking past you can see them from the Pilsley Rd. For guidance on how to observe activity in the yard and take pictures from a series of vantage points please get in touch.
Concerted community resistance to Cuadrilla’s plans means site construction at Preston New Road is months behind schedule. Construction has lasted 5 months and counting, compared to 2 months allocated in the planning application and up to 3 months estimated at the beginning of the year. With the drilling and hydraulic fracturing of 4 wells at the site originally scheduled to last 2 years additional delays are going to ramp up costs and deter the investment Cuadrilla needs to continue.
If you don’t live in Lancashire or the East Midlands check out the places across the country where Caudrilla’s 20,000 fracking trucks could be rolling soon, to and from Preston New Road, many of them carrying radioactive waste. There is likely to be some nearby fracking support site or transport route wherever you live in the country.
Join the fracking resistance and support Lancashire’s threatened communities! Join or form an anti-fracking group where you live. Read up on how you can fight fracking where you live.
Check out our factsheet about Cuadrilla’s plans, your community may be threatened with impacts (e.g. fracking waste being dumped or transported through your community) even if you live hundreds of miles from Lancashire.
