The Environment Agency has issued a Mineral Waste Variation Permit – Permit number: EPR/BB3300XG/V003 – to allow Horse Hill Development Ltd (HHDL) to carry out flow testing at Horse Hill.
No new drilling will take place at this stage (the exploratory well was drilled in late 2014). And there will be no flaring.
HHDL still needs other regulatory approvals from the Health and Safety Executive and Oil and Gas Authority. But they are one step closer. How ironic that they got this permit on the day the UN climate summit started – and the day after many Surrey residents were marching in London in defence of the climate.
Yesterday in Paris, David Cameron said, “instead of making excuses tomorrow to our children and grandchildren, we should be taking action against climate change today. It’s not difficult, it’s do-able, so we should come together and do it today.”
We absolutely agree. It’s not difficult. Stop slashing the measures that support clean, renewable energy, and stop pushing fracking and other climate-unfriendly oil and gas extraction.
At Horse Hill the company is planning to test both the Portland sandstone, which can yield conventional oil, and the lower Kimmeridge limestone, which would require fracking or other unconventional methods to extract it. This will threaten the local environment – in terms of air and water pollution, noise and traffic – and the global climate.
Frack Free Surrey is opposed to both conventional and unconventional extraction of oil and gas. Scientists say that to avoid hitting a catastrophic climate tipping point, we need to keep 80% of all known fossil fuels in the ground. Now is the time to switch investment into renewable energy, not extract the last dregs of dinosaur fuel out of the ground.
Here is the Environment Agency’s press release: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/environment-agency-grants-variation-to-permit-at-horse-hill
Read an article on Oil Voice: http://www.oilvoice.com/n/Solo-Oil-announces-consent-of-flow-test-at-Horse-Hill1-has-been-granted/aeaa2a579e74.aspx
and UKOG’s press release: http://www.ukogplc.com/ul/UKOG%20RNS%20HH%20EA%20Consent%20.pdf
and a description of the Flow Test process on the UKOG website:
http://www.ukogplc.com/page.php?pID=103
[…] see below for action you can take!) And we’ve just seen the Environment Agency announce approval of an application for flow testing at the Horse Hill site in Horley, so this is a battle which may soon be coming to Surrey. With campaigns growing in our own local […]
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now horley is being fracked action is important mobilizing all to stand in front of trucks with banners land protectors camp etc gather areas.
There’s no fracking at Horse Hill at present – they have just started flow testing this week. The results of the testing will determine whether they want to move to full production – either conventional extraction, or unconventional (possibly fracking). So it’s a bit of waiting game, but we need to keep an eye on it. We will post any news here as soon as we get it.