Fracking meaning

Original news Dean v Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy [2017] EWHC 1998 (Admin); [2017] All ER (D) 72 (Aug). The Planning Court concluded that the grant of a PEDL under section 3 of the Petroleum Act 1998 (PA 1998) was not entirely constrained by the statutory licensing code, so the Secretary of State could agree to alter the licence terms. Consequently, it rejected the claimant’s case that the deed varying the licence was ultra vires, and dismissed his application for judicial review. What was the background to the case? In 2008 the defendant issued a PEDL conferring exclusive rights on the licensees to search, drill for and recover hydrocarbons within a defined geographic area. The licence period was split into three stages: a stage for the licensee to undertake the agreed works programme of seismic and geological surveys a stage to obtain Oil and Gas Authority approval of a field development plan a production stage ...

Ineos Upstream Limited and another v The Lord Advocate [2018] CSOH 66 Why is this decision significant? This ruling matters because it tackles a highly charged issue: the development of unconventional oil and gas (UOG), including hydraulic fracturing (fracking), and the competence of a devolved government, namely the Scottish government, to control that activity. It interests planning practitioners as it clarifies the reach of planning law and policy, and it is relevant to constitutional lawyers as it confirms that courts determine the legal consequences of governmental steps, regardless of how ministers characterise them. It also records an acknowledgement by the Scottish ministers that public statements heralding a fracking ban did not accurately represent the legal reality. What did the court decide? Lord Pentland, sitting in the Outer House of the Court of Session, refused Ineos Upstream Limited’s petition for judicial review. Ineos contended that the Scottish government had unlawfully introduced an open-ended prohibition on UOG. The court accepted the Lord Advocate’s position, on behalf of the...

This year’s annual round-up surveys major developments from 2017 and looks towards 2018. It covers the government’s air quality plan and the linked legal challenges, the new Civil Procedure Rules on costs protection in Aarhus Convention claims, shifts concerning Brexit’s impact on environmental law, and a range of changes tied to the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), climate policy and targets. It also includes updates to LexisNexis®’s content, highlighting notable advances from the past year and what is planned for the next 12 months. This Practice Note also links to related Brexit content. Reviewing 2017 Air emissions and climate change What happened? Following extended litigation, starting in 2010 when ClientEarth first brought proceedings over exceedances of nitrogen dioxide limits, the government was directed to issue a new draft air quality plan for consultation and a final plan by 31 July 2017. The December 2015 plans were found to be inadequate, as they would not have secured UK compliance with lawful air pollution thresholds until 2025....

Oil & Gas—Onshore licensing regime Regulatory body Historically, oversight of the UK’s oil and gas resources rested mainly with the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), acting for the Secretary of State (SoS). Acting on Sir Ian Wood’s recommendations in his review of oil and gas recovery on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) (the Wood Review), the Government created a new independent regulator, the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) (formerly the Oil and Gas Authority), to assume DECC’s regulatory and licensing roles for all oil and gas exploration and production across the United Kingdom and the UKCS, covering applicable exploration and production operations throughout those areas, as announced by Government. On 14 July 2016, it was confirmed that DECC would be amalgamated with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, forming the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Subsequently, on 7 February 2023, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) was set up and assumed the energy brief previously held by the now-defunct BEIS,...

'Unconventional' petroleum 'Unconventional' petroleum is produced by methods beyond orthodox techniques (chiefly vertical and horizontal drilling). It embraces shale oil and shale gas (oil or gas contained within comparatively fissile shale strata that necessitate hydraulic fractionation, or ‘fracking’, to secure their release), coal bed methane (methane adsorbed onto the surface of coal seams), tight gas (gas confined in formations with permeability so low that fracking is indispensable) and hydrates (gas sequestered within ice-like crystalline water frameworks). For further details, see: Unconventional Oil & Gas—overview. A conventional joint operating agreement (conventional JOA) must be amended in several respects and in a number of areas to accommodate the distinct features of an unconventional petroleum venture in practice. For more on conventional JOAs, see Practice Notes: The purpose and the principles of the joint operating agreement and Joint operating agreements: operator and non-operating party perspectives. In 2014, the Association of International Energy Negotiators (AIEN) (formerly the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators) published a bespoke unconventional petroleum operations JOA, though in many regards...