UK Oil & Gas plc (UKOG) said its appeal against Surrey County Council’s refusal to grant permission for the Loxley gas appraisal well will be heard at a public inquiry on 27 July 2021.
HYDROGEN
The inspectorate’s process starts on 1 March and ends with the inquiry, expected to last up to nine days with a decision during Autumn 2021.
UKOG added that its counsel continued to advise the company that there were “strong grounds” to expect a positive outcome.
The company has previously said that the council’s grounds for refusal were against the advice of its planning and highway officers’ recommendations for approval.
UKOG’s wholly owned project, located in licence PEDL234, is appraising the “second largest undeveloped gas accumulation” discovered and flow tested in the UK onshore.
If successful, the gas will be reformulated into clean burning hydrogen with the energy capacity to power “around 200,000 homes” per year.
UKOG’s projects are in the Weald Basin and southeast Turkey.