'Fracking' operation may restart - UK - ITN.co.uk A controversial gas drilling operation is likely to re-start in the UK, despite the fact it has triggered earthquakes in the past. The company involved has accepted stringent recommendations from Government-commissioned experts who say hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," should be allowed to continue at the Preese Hall well in Lancashire. One of the provisos is that even a tremor too small to be noticed above ground should result in an immediate shutdown, with remedial action then carried out before work could be resumed again. The independent report also calls for careful monitoring of the site using arrays of seismic sensors, and steps to ensure excess pressure cannot build up beneath the ground. The process involves injecting high pressure water and chemicals into shale rock to release trapped natural gas. Well operator Cuadrilla Resources estimates that the Bowland Basin prospect site in Lancashire contains as much as 200 trillion cubic feet of gas. On April 1 and May 27 last year, two small earthquakes - of magnitude 2.3 and 1.5 - occurred in the Blackpool area.