The Environment Agency (EA) has said it was minded to accept draft proposals for changes, including construction of four additional boreholes, at Horse Hill oil field near Gatwick in Surrey.
VARIATION
Operator Horse Hill Developments Limited (HHDL) applied to the EA for a variation of its permit covering a range of work.
UK Oil & Gas plc is the operator and majority shareholder in the project.
The EA issued a draft decision document which accompanies the draft variation and notice.
PUBLIC CONSULTATION
A public consultation on the application began yesterday and is due to end on 31 March.
This is the third month-long consultation on the plans, with the first in October 2019 and the second in March 2021.
The site has attracted support and opposition from residents, activists and local councils.
PROGRAMME
The proposed programme includes:
– Consolidate the mining waste permit, water discharge activity and oil storage standard rules permit into a single permit notice
– Construct four additional boreholes (HH-3/HH-4/HH-5/HH-6) in addition to the current two boreholes (HH-1/HH-2)
– Undertake a 90-day well test for each of the additional wells before adding them to the production wells or decommissioning them
– Incinerate natural gas at a rate not exceeding 10 tonnes per day during production operations.
– Add a groundwater activity to inject an admixture of produced water and surface water to support the recovery of hydrocarbons and for injectivity tests.
– Repurposing of one of the additional boreholes (HHR) for re-injection.
• Undertake an injectivity test within HH-2 and a test on the reinjection well HHR once completed.
DECISION
In its report the EA stated: “The Environment Agency are satisfied that the scope of the works proposed by the applicant and the resulting changes to the environmental permit will not give rise to pollution of groundwater or surface water receptors.
“We are minded to issue the variation for Horse Hill operated by Horse Hill Developments Ltd.
“We consider in reaching that decision we have taken into account all relevant considerations and legal requirements and that the permit will ensure that the appropriate level of environmental protection is provided.”