July 29, 2021 11.37 am This story is over 32 months old

Mission complete: controversial fracking operation at oil field near Scunthorpe

Campaigners raised concerns over water contamination
Wressle site with equipment for proppant squeeze. | Photo: Egdon Resources plc

A fracking operation has been completed at the Wressle Oil Field Development near Scunthorpe in North Lincolnshire.

Last year the government approved a plan for Egdon Resources plc to continue to drill for oil in North Lincolnshire. The Hampshire-based oil and gas firm retained the well site at Lodge Farm near Wressle for production for 15 years after it won its appeal against North Lincolnshire Council.

This comes after the local council and campaigns previously raised concerns over water contamination. A public inquiry was held after North Lincolnshire Council rejected the initial plan by Egdon Resources to continue drilling for oil back in 2018.

The first oil was produced by a new well at the Wressle Oil Field Development in February this year. On July 29, Egdon Resources said the proppant squeeze operation on the Ashover Grit reservoir interval was completed safely and successfully.

A proppant squeeze is regarded as a form of low-volume fracking by the Environment Agency because the injection pressure is high enough to fracture rocks.

A total of 146 cubic metres of gelled fluid with 17.3 tonnes of ceramic proppant were injected into the Ashover Grit formation. The injection operations lasted for a total of only 1 hour and 30 minutes over a two-day period.

The firm said there were no health, safety, environment or security issues experienced during the operations.

All equipment and personnel have now been demobilised from site. The Wressle well will now be subject to a coiled tubing operation to fully clean out the production tubing before bringing the well back into production through the site’s permanent production facilities.

Mark Abbott, managing director of Egdon, said: “I am pleased to report on the safe and successful completion of the proppant squeeze operations at Wressle.  I would like to thank our team of contractors and staff for the highly professional way in which the operations were undertaken with no adverse impact on the environment or the amenity of our neighbours.

“I now look forward to the well being placed back on production and reporting on the positive impact of the operation on future oil production from the site in the coming weeks.”

The village is sitting on reserves of about two million barrels of oil. The Ashover Grit reservoir is expected to produce at a contained rate of 500 barrels of oil per day.