Permit changes sought for drilling for oil near Horley

An application for four new hydrocarbon wells and a water reinjection well which will result in six wells drilling for 25 years at the Horse Hill site was approved by Surrey County Council in 2019.

The plans have been highly contentious, especially with environmental campaigners, and a Court of Appeal challenge was lost last month despite the decision not being unanimous.

Horse Hill Developments Ltd (HHDL) has applied for several permit variations as part of its operations at Horse Hill well site.

These are to:

• Construct up to four new boreholes in addition to the two boreholes already constructed;

• Use two of the six boreholes as reinjection wells to support production;

• Carry out well treatments such as an acid wash and solvent treatments;

• Run 90-day well tests for each of the four additional wells before they are either added as production wells at the site, or abandoned;

• Undertake an injectivity test within one of the wells (HH-2z) and any other wells as dictated by HHDL;

• Incinerate natural gas at a rate not exceeding ten tonnes per day during production operations. This to continue until it can be demonstrated that the incineration of natural gas is no longer considered Best Available Technique through a cost benefit analysis.

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An Environment Agency spokesperson said:

“An environmental permit sets out stringent conditions that all oil and gas sites must adhere to. We will not issue an environmental permit for a site if we consider that activities taking place will cause significant pollution to the environment or harm to human health.

“Public consultation lets people and organisations take part in our decision making. We welcome specifically, comments on environmental and health issues and where people have particular local knowledge. We take all relevant comments into account when making our decisions.

“When making permit decisions, we use information on the potential environmental and human health impacts of the activity.

“In deciding whether or not to issue the permit, the Environment Agency will take into account all relevant considerations and legal requirements.”

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A second round of consultation is now open for public comments, before the Environment Agency makes the final decision on whether to issue the permit variations.

The consultation is now open and will run until Thursday March 31.

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