AJ Lucas had looked to be a winner from the elevation of Liz Truss to UK Prime Minister because she dropped the moratorium on fracking which would have benefitted AJ Lucas, which has shale gas licences through its subsidiary, Cuadrilla.

AJ Lucas chair Andrew Purcell told shareholders Sunak’s decision to reimpose the fracking moratorium was “profoundly disappointing, particularly coming from someone who had only recently declared his conditional support for its lifting”.

He said there had been a “curt dismissal” of a good faith effort by the company’s UK chief executive Francis Egan towards a restart of operations.

“Introduction of the moratorium was unfair, its reintroduction particularly so,” he said.

“We and our partners have invested significant amounts of money in the UK and have always performed in full compliance with our licence conditions.”

He said there had been concern about the “unpredictability of surface seismicity”, or earthquakes, and that other industries had been permitted to generate higher levels of seismicity.

“One is forced to conclude that its real purpose is to provide a thin veil for a mindset of outsourcing fossil fuel production while loudly proclaiming green credentials to the domestic electorate,” Purcell said.

“The underlying problems facing the UK have not gone away. The rate at which it is trying to transition to renewable energy cannot be achieved without fossil fuels, particularly natural gas. Increasing domestic production of gas should be a priority, however, imposing windfall taxes on oil and gas production and a vacillating position on fracking only underscores the regulatory risk with making long term investment decisions in the UK.”