ENERGY company IGas has defended itself against repeated claims that it deliberately drilled deeper than its licence allowed in Ellesmere Port.

In his representations to the ongoing public inquiry into ‘fracking’, environmental campaigner Cllr Matt Bryan said the firm drilled 1,000m further than permitted.

Critics say the company was intentionally aiming for the shale layer at the Portside site rather than the shallower coal bed in its search for gas.

Cllr Bryan, who made clear he was representing residents in his ward of Upton rather than Cheshire West and Chester Council, said people now had no trust in the “cowboy” organisation.

He said: “Whilst this may not form a material planning objection it goes some way to show just one of dozens I could talk about which indicates why my community and other communities quite frankly, do not trust this unsavoury cowboy outfit.”

However, a spokesman for IGas told The Standard this matter had already been resolved and the council had accepted the energy firm had done nothing unlawful.

She said: “There is no dispute with the council on this point i.e. that the existing well site is lawful and was drilled in accordance with the planning permission and associated conditions.”

A spokesman for CWaC also explained that there had been some confusion over the drilling depth quoted in the licence which was actually a minimum depth, rather than a maximum one.

The wrangle comes as IGas continues its appeal against the council’s decision to refuse it permission to carry out a ‘flow test’ of its well in Ellesmere Port.

The company has been at pains to point out that the application in question has never been for hydraulic fracturing.

Known as ‘fracking’, the process involves drilling deep into the shale layer to inject a high-pressure liquid into the rock to release gas. Campaigners fear it could lead to pollution and even earthquakes.

CWaC’s planning committee overwhelmingly voted against the flow test plans last January on the grounds that it failed to mitigate the impact on climate change.

The public inquiry, held at Chester Town Hall until next week, is the first in the UK to look into the impact of an onshore gas site on climate change.

Cllr Bryan told the hearing: “Returning to the issue of climate change, quite simply, why are we sat here? Climate change threatens our very existence.

“[We are] debating a development and industry that, quite simply, is not compatible with our Paris climate change obligations and not heeding the warning from the IPCC report to keep our emissions low enough to keep our climate temperature below 1.5 degrees.”

IGas’s barrister Giles Cannock stressed that the application had attracted no objections from statutory consultees such as the Environment Agency (EA), Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

He said: “There will be no drilling or deepening of the well and, contrary to the concerns of local residents, no hydraulic fracturing is proposed and no ‘matrix acidization’ is proposed.

“This planning permission, when properly understood, should be granted.”