Public meeting at West Chiltington, 25 June 2017. Photo: Broadford Bridge Action Group
UK Oil & Gas said today its oil exploration programme at Broadford Bridge in West Sussex was producing positive results. But the company was accused of keeping local people in the dark when it did not take part in a public meeting, attended by more than 120 people last night.
In a statement to investors, UKOG said it had successfully recovered a 330ft rock core from one of the Kimmeridge Limestone target zones in the well (KL4).
It also reported that light oil was continuing to seep from shales and limestones in this section of the well. This, it said, suggested that the oil discovery made in 2014 at Horse Hill was part of a bigger continuous reservoir underlying about 30km of the Weald basin.
Stephen Sanderson, UKOG’s Executive Chairman, said:
“The coring programme continues to deliver positive results and important new insights into this continuous oil accumulation, the first of its kind discovered in the UK.”
He said rock cores would be taken from two other target formations (KL3) and KL2) at Broadford Bridge. He expected flow testing would begin in the second half of July.
Last week, UKLG made the first announcement that mobile light oil had been observed in Kimmeridge Limestone. It also said wet gas readings had “increased significantly” at the top of the KL4. Mr Sanderson said:
“I am privileged and excited to have seen, smelt and touched the oil in the KL4 samples today.
“This is a significant and positive result at such an early stage in the well.”
“We would still like questions answered”
Broadford Bridge Action Group, a local environmental alliance, responded to today’s company statement:
“They [UKOG] frequently put out statements talking up findings at their sites in order to attract investment.
“We have no independent assessment of what they have found and so are unable to comment on the context, quality or significance of this find. Either way, we would still like many questions answered.”
Public meeting at West Chiltington, 25 June 2017. Photo: Broadford Bridge Action Group
The group, which organised last night’s meeting in West Chiltington, about two miles from the well site, accused UKOG of “keeping the local community in the dark”. A spokesperson said:
“Many attending didn’t know anything about what was happening at the site until they heard about the public meeting.
“Of most concern was the expansion of the site, as UKOG say they want to drill more wells between Billingshurst and Horse Hill, thereby industrialising the countryside.”
Other people were concerned about UKOG’s financial stability and the effect of drilling on farmland and on water quality and supplies, the spokesperson said.
Speakers included Graham Warren, a former Environment Agency hydrogeologist, Tony Whitbread, Chief Executive of Sussex Wildlife Trust, and environmentalist, Nicola Peel. Among the audience were parish and country councillors.
“Local residents desperate to know what’s happening”
The Broadford Bridge Action Group spokesperson said:
“Local residents were fully engaged in the debate and desperate to know more about what is happening and how it will affect them.
“We were pleased to be able to answer most questions but disappointed that UKOG failed to take up our offer to attend and have a place on the panel. They told us they were worried that they’d be shouted down but, despite a packed room, the debate was level-headed and balanced.
“It’s clear from the experts who spoke and contributions in the room that there are many vital questions that remain unanswered about the risks of water, land and air pollution, the abilities of the Environment Agency to provide enough resource to ensure safety, the lack of an emergency plan in case of accident and the apparent lack of an insurance bond by UKOG to mitigate against anything going wrong on the site.”
UKOG has organised three visits for local people to Broadford Bridge in the past two weeks. But Broadford Bridge Action Group said:
“These have mainly been attended by Parish Councillors from Billingshurst, West Chiltington and Pulborough, as there was no public announcement made of these visits.”
Reaction
Today’s statement from UKOG was welcomed by the company’s former chairman, the Australian mining engineer, David Lenigas, who has interests in the oil site at Brockham, near Dorking.
He tweeted: “Great to see UKOG’s Broadford Bridge well update this morning. This is looking really good for UKOG and great for Brockham and HH [Horse Hill].”
But Balcombe campaigner, Kathryn McWhirter, said now was not the time to build an oilfield. Writing in The Argus, she asked:
“Are we sleepwalking into an oilfield? The oil industry hopes we are. So do the Conservatives.
“If they get their way, there will be wells across the Weald, with West Sussex the prime target.
“Are we prepared to see the countryside we love industrialised for the sake of a small, short-term reduction in our balance of payment deficit, and profits for the few?”
Links
UKOG statement on coring and continued oil seepage 26 June 2017
UKOG statement on oil seepage 23 June 2017
DrillOrDrop report from the Broadford Bridge site (14 June 2017)
Categories: Industry
DRILL OR DROP? 
Although UKOG did not officially attend , they saw fit to send undercover agents as they did at Pulborough public meeting , also attempted to infiltrate local groups today but we’re quickly identified and blocked. UKOG are obviously very worried at the level of local interest and the lack of trust toward a company acting with no social licence. Meanwhile Sanderson continues with his fetish for sniffing oil , it might explain a lot of his behavior.
John Houston
How would someone be undercover at a public meeting?
You really want an answer to that ? Ok they pretended to be a local resident , is that clear enough for you ?
How many of the ‘residents’ were the rent an anarchist mob? I mean John you’re attending everything and can’t be local to all?
Maybe if something was organised independently ukog would attend. The problem is that these things are organised by people with an agenda and the speakers are selected.
If debate was wanted then why we’re the ‘undercover ukog ‘ people blocked? To allow misinformation to be distributed
Why were members of the public being discriminated against at a public meeting. Why were people being singled out because of their views or because they are “not one of us”. Sounds like the sought of thing that happened in dictatorships during the 1930’s.
All are local, but some are more local than others.
John
Only In as much as the general public and the press are allowed to attend a public meeting. But of course, they are not allowed to speak as residents of the Parish. Hence yes, if they attend as residents when they were not, there would be some subterfuge. It sounds a bit crack handed, all they had to do was turn up and listen, as is their legal right.
Public meeting. .
That would be ‘ UKOG declines to attend meeting’, as they would only have failed to go if they promised to go, or were legally mandated to attend and did not. Likewise they declined the offer, they did not fail to take it up.
Or maybe, this week, I failed to buy a new boiler, new windows, solar panels, a computer upgrade and a credit card at usurious interest rates, all of which I was invited to take up.
But it does seem they (UKOG) are doing their bit for local democracy by visiting the various parish councils.
Maybe they would attend a public meeting organised by the Parish Councils and chaired by an independent chairperson?
Home grown oil is greener than risking pollution in our oceans by transporting it in tankers.
I’m all for it.Why can’t you see that.
We don’t need the oil – in fact it needs to stay in the ground!! This is the End Game and we all no the way energy needs have to go now!!
Rachel surely you realise they only care about their house prices ? This saving the planet nonsense is but a guise.
I hope they at least got a cuppa n bit of cake for their big night out?
rachel..see pollution and injuries to humans and animals in Australia and USA.. and CANADA look up on the internet and u tube for films about fracking
Anna, I suggest you don’t watch any of the footage showing birds of prey being killed by your beloved turbines…scary stuff!
[Edited by moderator] There is no need for fracking in the Weald as this “drill or drop” report clearly states the “light oil was continuing to seep from shales and limestones”. The shales and limestones are naturally fractured, thats why the oil is seeping, get it.
[Edited by moderator].
This is a conventional discovery which does not require fracking! You have been mislead if you have been told it will!
They probably decided not to attend because of too many bearded attendees! Always a bad sign.
Or perhaps, they are rather busy at the moment getting on with the job even though their progress has been held back at all opportunities, and still is.
I love how we see pictures of these meetings, but no pictures of the carpark. I would just like to see how many horses were hitched outside any how many vehicles full of fuel from Fawley Oil Refinery.
Oil now predicted to drop into the sub $40/barrel and there is still a desire to add, what will be an increased percentage, in shipping it from the other side of the world? Get another Torrey Canyon and just see how the public react to what could be an avoidable disaster, if we had utilised our own resources.
Perhaps some of the locals would be interested in what they may be able to do with income from this site if it is developed? (Buzzards and butterflies protected.) I recognise there is difficulty in assessing the potential for this yet, but there is already a suggestion that a Wealth Fund could be established based upon development of the Weald, which was a trick we missed with the N.Sea.
Do not be misled, there is very little N.Sea oil used at Fawley, it does come from a long way away, and that is down to public demand.
Anna-you can find films about all sorts of things happening in other countries. That is the internet for you. Why would they happen here, and what has this site to do with fracking??
Never mind, Donald is going to save the planet by covering his wall with solar panels, so, as he says, the taller he builds it the better it will be for the environment and cheaper for Mexico!
Our national debt is rising and fuel imports and trade deficit are adding tens of billions of pounds to the total. It is mad that we have to import while ignore our own products.
I see you’ve returned to being normal TW. Hallelujah I thought you’d gone to the green side for good.
Our trade deficit is going to be a HUGE issue very shortly when the consumer driven growth starts to falter.
I’ll be very glad to see the end of dodgy foreign cash coming into the country once foreign investors take fright.
On the contrary I have always been ‘normal’. I am neiither Green nor anti Green. Rationale and reasons are that I am for.
Drillordrop does appear to have a very unscrupulous title “UKOG failed to attend meeting”.. same sort of thing when they wrote ANGS don’t have planning permission.
And you say UKOG and ANGS are limited on facts…
As stated above, perhaps if these meetings were independently organised by the local council then UKOG would attend.