A MAJOR planning battle is looming over whether shale gas can be extracted from under the North York Moors by drilling sideways from outside the national park’s boundaries.

Fracking from the surface has been banned by the Government within national parks across the country since 2015, but the national park authority says a loophole currently could allow vertical wells to be drilled outside, with the drills to be turned through 90 degrees to make horizontal boreholes under the moors.

Fracking firm Ineos has revealed that it wants to carry out a geological survey in 2018 to build a 3D picture of the rock strata under the moors before drilling test wells to establish the best places for extraction.

Tom Pickering, director of operations, said it ‘believed in the proven safety’ of shale extraction, adding: “Therefore whilst drilling will never take place in a National Park, we can frack underneath without impact on the surface above.”

A national newspaper has claimed that Ineos is set to lodge planning applications to drill up to 10 exploratory boreholes around the southern edge of the moors.

However, a North York Moors National Park Authority spokesman said that under a draft joint minerals plan drawn up by the authority, North Yorkshire County Council and City of York Council, fracking drilling would not only be barred within the park but there would also be a presumption against the approval of drilling applications within a 3.5 km buffer zone around the park’s boundaries.

He said that with current fracking technology, this would make it extremely difficult for any firm wanting to drill horizontally under the moors from vertical wells outside the park.

“Our stance is we don’t want fracking under the moors and want to close this loophole via this means,” he said.

“The public continues to be concerned about issues such as induced seismic activity and water pollution and these may still arise within the moors even if vertical drilling did not take place there but outside the boundaries.”

He said the minerals plan was due to be examined by an inspector at a three-week public inquiry, due to start in the spring at County Hall in Northallerton, at which it was anticipated that fracking firms would strongly oppose the restriction.

Any attempt to frack under the moors might provoke more protests from anti-fracking individuals and organisations worried about the environmental impact, similar to ones staged for the past year at Kirby Misperton, near Pickering, where another firm, Third Energy, wants to frack.