LONDON, June 26 (UPI) -- Two environmental statements on shale gas exploration in Lancashire are the most comprehensive ever completed for the site, the CEO at Cuadrilla Resources said.
Cuadrilla said it deposited 21 chapters of environmental studies with the Lancashire County Council associated with plans for up to four shale gas exploration wells.
CEO Francis Egan said the independent study incorporated feedback from its applications for exploration as much as reasonably possible.
"The end result is probably the two most comprehensive Environmental Statements ever completed for proposed shale gas exploration sites," he said in a statement.
Its plans address everything from water use, which it says would be reduced because of recycling efforts, to visual impact.
Egan said moving ahead in the Lancashire shale basin is an "important milestone" for the country.
Cuadrilla said there may be as much as 200 trillion cubic feet of shale natural gas in the Bowland basin in Lancashire.
The company was the target of major demonstrations last summer when exploratory operations in the southern village of Balcombe were viewed as a prelude to fracking. The controversial drilling practice wasn't carried out at the site.
