14 DAY TRIAL // Cuadrilla hired a team of independent experts to find out if their activity in Lancashire is responsible for two seismic events which took place in that region. The group published their conclusions earlier today. It seems that Cuadrilla's name might be indeed correlated with those two incidents.
In order to clean up their reputation, the enterprise invested in a study elaborated by independent researchers, who analyzed data provided by Cuadrilla, to establish if there really is a connection between the two quakes and the company's fracking work at the Preese Hall-1 well, located in Lancashire. The experts reached the conclusion that it is highly probable that the fracking at Preese Hall-1 triggered the recorded seismic events.
Such phenomena were apparently generated by an “unusual combination of factors” including the specific geology of the well site, correlated with the pressure implied by water injection.
The representatives think that such an incident is unlikely to take place again in the near future. Wost-case scenario implies a similar event, but with far less damaging consequences for the local community.
“This combination of geological factors was rare and would be unlikely to occur together again at future well sites. If these factors were to combine again in the future local geology limits seismic events to around magnitude 3 on the Richter scale as a worst-case scenario,” stated the people behind this project.
The first quake of magnitude 2.3 on the Richter scale, shook the area on 1 April and it was followed by another event of magnitude 1.4, recorded on 27 May.
Local people and environmental groups blame the fracking technique used by Cuadrilla enterprise for the incident, and seem to think that the company's activity has a devastating impact upon the environment.
The report also highlights the role which the company has actively assumed in boosting the national economy through the creation of 5,600 “high-pay high-skills jobs” all across the UK, of which 1,700 are meant to decrease the unemployment rate in Lancashire.