Large areas of Yorkshire, north-west and east Midlands earmarked for oil and gas exploration as government announces it will offer licences for 27 new sites
Areas near Leeds, Sheffield, Lincoln and Nottingham are to be offered to companies in an expansion plan that green groups predicted would trigger “hundreds of battles” over the future of the countryside.
Ineos, the Anglo-Swiss chemicals group that wants to lead the UK’s shale gas industry, was awarded three licences and said the latest ones could pave the way for gas to be pumped by 2020.
Source: 1,000 sq miles of England to be opened up for fracking
