The UK’s Energy Minister Claire Perry had a private meeting with oil and gas firms in May, months before fracking resumed in the UK earlier this month for the first time in seven years, but she failed to record that meeting in a transparency register, The Guardian reported on Friday. Details of the May meeting emerged following a freedom of information request, and showedthat Perry met with industry representatives, authorities, and other companies, including BP and Cuadrilla.
It is Cuadrilla that resumed hydraulic fracturing operations in the UK earlier this month—at the Preston New Road shale gas exploration site in Lancashire in northwest England amid protests by campaigners and local residents. According to the round table notes, the key points from the minister’s presentation included arguments that the UK is moving to a position to become a net importer of gas, that the shale industry could create jobs, and that a ‘UK model’ of shale extraction can be created and exported around the world.