The Environment Agency has granted an environmental permit to allow energy firm Island Gas Ltd (IGas) to carry out the drilling of an exploratory borehole at a site at Tinker Lane in Nottinghamshire.

The Agency said the decision follows a rigorous assessment of the IGas proposals and detailed consideration of all comments submitted during two rounds of public consultations.

The permit set out the conditions that IGas must follow in order to protect groundwater, surface water and air quality and to ensure the safe storage, management and disposal of waste materials.

IGas are planning to drill an exploratory borehole to explore the potential for shale gas production. They would like to drill a single vertical well down through the coal and shale layers to collect the rock samples for analysis.

The operator intends to drill a single borehole to recover core samples from, and to measure the properties of, the Bowland Shale and the Millstone Grit Group geological formations that underlie the site. The application is for authorisation to drill a vertically inclined well drilled to a depth of approximately 1810 metres.

Once the drilling of the well is completed well testing will commence. During the drilling and well construction phases geological logging is undertaken to determine whether formations contain petroleum. This borehole log will help identify which zones justifymsubsequent testing.

The Agency said:

“Should IGas receive the appropriate planning permission and begin the permitted activities, we will stringently enforce the conditions of the permit to ensure that waste is managed properly and local groundwater is protected.”