A MAJOR power company has erected a 118-foot-high drilling rig to try and find gas, more than half-a-mile under a field in North Yorkshire.

Greenpark Energy, which has 38 drilling sites around the UK, has started exploratory drilling in a field in Wigginton Road, in an effort to find coal-bed methane gas (CBM).

The drilling work, which has been contracted to BDF, has been fully operational since last week, and has already reached a depth of about 510 metres, with a target of about 1,000 metres.

Greenpark hopes that the drilling will find the gas under the Haxby site, which is the company’s second CBM site in Yorkshire.

David Harper, executive vice president for land at Greenpark, said: “We are looking for a natural gas, which would go into the national gas distribution network. It is the same as we would use in our gas cookers at home.

“We have already drilled one hole at Wood Farm in Shipton--by-Beningbrough, this is the second and final one in the area for the time being.”

To access the gas, the company must drill deep into the ground, then along the coal seam, and can then be pumped to the national gas distribution network, via underground pipes.

Noise from the drill, which runs 24-hours a day, is contained by a specially-constructed wall of hay bales around the site, which muffles the sound of the work.

Derek Hunter, who is overseeing the drilling, said: “We have been to see people living nearby and told them to get in touch with any queries or concerns.

“Nobody has been in touch since we started. We get most of the vibration here on site.”

Mr Harper said the land was not owned by City of York Council, but confirmed it was owned by a local organisation.