London - Protesters blocked access to a drilling site in southern England on Thursday as part of a campaign against the controversial "fracking" process used in shale gas exploration, illustrating the potential battle ahead for Britain's nascent shale industry.
Estimates have said Britain may have major shale reserves which could help reverse a rising dependency on energy imports, but the industry is having to tread carefully in order to reassure a sceptical public and vocal environmental lobby.
Cuadrilla Resources is readying a site to drill a well near the village of Balcombe in West Sussex. The well is a conventional one that will not use fracking, but Cuadrilla has fracked elsewhere, and is one of a handful of companies with access to shale acreage that might be fracked in future, and so its activities have become a target for anti-fracking protests.
A spokesman for the privately-owned company said on Thursday that protesters had stopped vehicles from accessing the site.
Hydraulic fracturing or fracking retrieves gas and oil trapped in tight layered rock formations by injecting high-pressure water, sand and chemicals.
The protest has been organised by campaign group 'Frack Off'. They fear that Cuadrilla, the only company to have fracked a well exploring for shale gas in Britain at its Lancashire site, could seek to frack in Sussex at a later date.
"We have tried other methods. We now have no choice but to take matters into our own hands and protect ourselves from the threat fracking poses to our health and environment," said protester Alex Griffiths in an email from Frack Off.
Drilling and fracking wells will in the next few years be critical to establish whether shale gas can be commercially produced in Britain, where fracking is controversial. It was banned for a year in 2011 after triggering small earthquakes, and concerns remain amongst environmental groups that chemicals used could reach water supplies.
The Cuadrilla spokesman said that the company hoped to begin drilling at the site early next week and that the vehicles were carrying parts for the drilling rig.
UK utility Centrica recently bought a quarter stake in Cuadrilla's northern England shale licences. French oil company Total has also said it would like to explore for shale gas in Britain.