Next U.K. Fracker Shrugs Off Shutdown Risk Seeing Need for Gas

The head of the company set to drill Britain’s first fracking well in a decade shrugs off the risk that protesters and government’s main opposition will shut down his project before it can start.

Francis Egan, the chief executive officer of Cuadrilla Resources Ltd.,is poised to begin hydraulic fracturing within days at a well in northwest England. No matter what’s decided by courts or politicians weighing the issues, Egan said the U.K.’s growing needs for natural gas will remain a prominent factor in the debate.

While the ruling Conservative Party has backed fracking, the Labour opposition said it ...