Photo: DrillOrDrop
For the first time, there appears to be a concerted campaign by investors in an oil company to support planning proposals for exploration.
A month-long consultation opened on Thursday last week into a bid by UK Oil and Gas Investments plc to retain its Broadford Bridge site in West Sussex for a further 12 months.
Early on Friday, a subscriber to the UKOG share chatline posted a template comment backing the application.
By the end of the day, 62 comments of support had been submitted on West Sussex County Council’s consultation webpage. Of these, 19 were identical to the chatline template. Most of the others used similar words or arguments.
The share chat subscribers recommended: “Spread the word folks and fill in the form of support”, “everyone do the same”.
One said:
“Great idea if you happen to be a local resident but are they going to bother with our opinions if we live miles away? YES still worth doing as it may get the point over of National importance. I say this because the first question if you want to comment is your residential address. … now where’s that West Sussex phone book lol.”
Another said:
“Sunday morning, surely you have 10 min to submit your planning SUPPORT. And then 5 min to do your wife/partners. Do it for you, them, me the UK economy, fuel security. To keep cute pandas warm at the zoo! You know it makes sense”.
Opponents of oil and gas projects have regularly encouraged social media followers to submit comments on applications and have provided template objections.
But in applications reviewed by DrillOrDrop since 2013, there’s been no evidence of a campaign among supporters. It’s also unusual to see supporters of a project outnumber opponents. At 10pm yesterday, of the 115 comments submitted, 76 were in support and 39 in opposition.
Local versus national
Analysis by DrillOrDrop of the postcodes given with comments suggests supporters were from across the UK and were not local. None gave postcodes for Billingshurst, Pulborough, Broadford Bridge or West Chiltington, the villages near the site. Only 8% of the total gave a West Sussex postcode.
Postcode of people submitting comments in support of the Broadford Bridge application
View Support for Broadford Bridge application in a full screen map
In contrast, 46% of opponents gave a West Sussex postcode and 20% said they were from the neighbouring villages.
Postcode of people submitting comments in support of the Broadford Bridge application
View Objections to Broadford Bridge application in a full screen map
Most of the letters of support were submitted on Friday (14 July), while most of the objections were dated Sunday 16 July.
Many of the letters of support said the site was of national significance and important to the UK economy, generating tax revenue and providing fuel security.
One comment from Cornwall said:
“private investor, essential for the revenue it will provide to the exchequer … essential for the provision of my care in old age”
Another said:
“We probably have the largest onshore oil field in the country if not Europe of national importance just as we are entering Brexit…This application must go ahead…”
The suggestion was made repeatedly that the application would prove the Weald Basin oil reserve was potentially worth many billions.
Most of the letters of objection mentioned concerns about acidisation (a technique used to stimulate flow in the well), new plans to store acid on the site, changes in the proposals since the last planning application, a lack of consultation and independent monitoring, impacts of flaring, threat of industrialisation and contribution to climate change.
- Green Party MEP, Keith Taylor, is visiting opponents at the entrance to the Broadford Bridge at 11am on Thursday 20 July. Details
Link to application and consultation
DrillOrDrop report on planning application
DrillOrDrop timeline for Broadford Bridge
Categories: Regulation
DRILL OR DROP? 
So, why shouldn’t shareholders in a company support the plans of that company? (Be crazy if they did not.) To invest in a company an individual will have conducted a great deal of balanced research before making their financial commitment. This is a great deal more than most of the antis who object, in many cases demonstrating a complete lack of knowledge concerning what the company is about. Get used to it, this is the tip of the iceberg and will multiply and will spread into the fracking issue when exploration companies decide to mobilise this strength.
Never mind, refracktion insists the PI never makes any money in these sort of companies so there will be no interest. (Funny the share price ignores that comment.)
Just a taster-inflation dropped last month due to cheaper fuel costs, due to US fracking. Link that to the potential for investors to make a return in UK shale gas as well as the potential for gas bills to decrease and everything changes. Interesting that the exploration companies have so far found it unnecessary to utilise such factors.
Martin, it’s interesting that AJ Lucas investors seem to be looking longingly at UKOG
This was the opinion of one investor on Hot Copper just a week ago
” It is no surprise UKOG share price triple in the last few months. They all the right things as an exploration company. They show initiatives they drill they make progress they produce good results they communicate. Compared to AJL/Cuadrilla got planning approval and then decided to change the plan. Drilled a horizontal well and did f..all with it and then submitted another planning applications. It seems that Cuadrilla management is becoming in love and main business is with administration submitting and obtaining planning approval. Maybe after 5 years they have become addicted to this planning permission procedure and used it as an excuses from doing its real jobs as an exploration company, that is to drill and explore. It is easier job in admin and submitting paper work. You dont have to make progress. Obviously they still get paid well regardless. And now they can’t even look after their essential equipment from being vandalized. Maybe it ia another excuse for the management to sit on their hands while their paychecks keep rolling in. These guys were supposed to be high caliber players in their roles but the results highlight their inadequacies and incapacities for all to see. No wonder UK investors rushed o UKOG instead of AJL/CUADRILLA. The market simply dont trust this company from its operation and its management capabilities.”
Of course we all know that the potential for UK gas bills to decrease as you suggest above has been dismissed by Cuadrilla, Centrica and most other commentators – do you have anything new to add to that particular discussion? Please don’t give us supply and demand 101 😉
I imagine that some investors will indeed make money – the ones who are smart enough to get out at the right time. There are always suckers out there who will fall for a good patter.
AJ Lucas shares appear to be up approximately 60% y/y. Not a bad return in my opinion!
Or down 50% since last October
Or down 80% over the last 4 years
I don’t think many Hot Copper investors would agree with you LOL
Well, it would depend on when they invested, would it not? I haven’t done a survey of hot copper investors to understand the average cost basis of the average poster, have you?
Doh! really?
No survey Peeny but I do follow the sentiment on there. They are not happy bunnies are they?
I don’t really know, Refracktion. But I do know that stocks rise and fall quickly. Making a big deal about a single equity today may suit your purposes, but it might not do the trick tomorrow, and in fact it might just come back to bite you in the hind quarters. I know a few shale related equities that have done quite well recently.
Then you’ll know that you have to look at long term trends and futures Peeny. You plunge your cash into as many funds as you want. I shall not be following you.
Golly – they do seem to be getting spooked over on Hot Copper – they do hate being quoted it seems 😂
AT least TGN01 seems to have a brain though!
“So you et al are blaming the anti fracking movement is inspired by my one single post that was quoted by them and this is the cause for the delay of Caudrilla in its own doing and the miserable share price of the company. What a preposterous notion. You are sounding more and more the anti fracking brigades themselves with yours conspiracy theory. Next you guy gonna say the uneconomic flow rate and Caudrilla failure caused by my post questioning its progress. It is quite fishy.”
I asked Mike Hill and Philip P to explain how their All-Renewable Energy Plan would provide reliable power when the wind stops blowing for three weeks while the sun is shrouded in clouds and fog. They didn’t have a reasonable answer other than “we’ll use a smart grid” which doesn’t accomplish much but to shift the problem elsewhere.
I then showed them approximately how expensive their program would be when it came to installing a battery back up. The one-line summary is that it would cost $8.4 trillion, and it wouldn’t be feasible because of a scarcity of raw material (esp cobalt). The summary is below. I would encourage Mike and/or Philip to find some more appropriate answers to the question I have asked.
Here is the previous text:
So, Philip, do these “smart” grids create energy? No, they just move it around. Making grids flexible will help, but it certainly won’t solve the fundamental problem. You want to rely on the kindness of your neighbors to supply three weeks of reliable energy? Where do they get that from, Philip? They are on intermittent power as well, I assume? How much storage will your neighbors have to allow them to meet not only their own needs but the needs of their neighbors? Will you pay for their storage? Do you understand the scale of the storage solution you are contemplating?
[Moderator] – the rest of this comment is a repeat from a previous post. See the comments at the bottom of this article [/moderator]
[Comments removed by moderator]
I am not sure why this comment regarding supply of minerals required for battery storage was moderated. This is an important issue and well pointed out that both EV and home battery storages are competing for the same and limited global supplies of lithium and cobalt. There will not be enough cobalt for these types of battery to achieve secured supply of electricity for more than a week.
TW, if you are anti-fracking and you make donations to Drill or Drop, then you get to dictate editorial decisions. This is part of the “independent” philosophy of the site.
Look carefully at the posts on this board. How many are directly related to the subject of this article? Not very many, yet they aren’t being moderated, are they?
No, the anti-frackers take serious offense when you provide factual data in a post that undermines their Green Dream. They just don’t like it!
Fib. Maybe you should donate $11 (outbid Refracktion contribution by $1) to get more favorable editorial outcomes.😊
TW, my contributions are priceless. ;o)
[Comment removed by moderator]
Fibonacci
I moderated your comment because it is unhelpful to repeat-post long contributions – if everyone did this, comments would become unreadable.
Thanks for the donation suggestion TW – perhaps Fibonacci will be prepared to test his theory with hard cash.
Paul, the previous comment was buried deep within an old article and was made long after the article was published. I doubt anyone but Philip saw it. I thought it would be useful to post it in a newer article so that comment-makers would be afforded the opportunity to take in that information.
It wasn’t an anti-fracking comment, however, so it was quickly erased when an anti-fracking sponsor of DoD made waves. We have all come to expect this kind of bias from DoD, so it is not unexpected.
Paul – your forbearance is really quite exemplary.
I am of course flattered that Peeny seems to think my influence is so great.
You are probably less that flattered that he seems o think you are anybody’s for 10 quid 😂
As has already been suggested he can always test his theory by offering you some cash himself.
Paul, remove “independent” from your tagline and I will make a contribution. Deal?
Alas Fibonacci, there are some things that money just can’t buy.
LOL. As with many anti-fracker claims, this one is highly doubtful, Paul!
TW – I imagine it was moderated because it was effectively spam – repeating stuff not relevant to the post in question which has been posted before by the same person. Think of it like picking up litter. The clue is in “[Moderator] – the rest of this comment is a repeat from a previous post. See the comments at the bottom of this article [/moderator]
Surely people are not using TEMPLATES are they?
The Wacky Backy Fracky mob were MOST scathing about the fact that “Out of all the objections (to Cuadrilla’s 2 development sites) , over 18,000 were template letters templates & 11,500 from outside Lancs”. This one of their admins wrote makes them “valueless”!
Now they will have to explain how it works when 16 people fill in this template. (Sixteen 😂), and why 92% of the 76 (Seventy six!! not 760 or 7,600) in favour come from outside the county.
It’s lovely seeing chickens flying home to roost isn’t it?
So, refracktion, when has there ever been a subject on this board to attempt to verify who a poster is, and why they would post under a fictional name? You spend a great deal of your time posting about this, yet we never see it as the subject matter.
If you don’t like what someone posts just ignore it. Trying to obtain censorship is more than a little desperate.
Martin – Peeny can post using whatever ID he wants I suppose – I’d say that questioning why a poster would insist on anonymity is a relevant issue on any comment though. Feel free to differ if you wish.
[Edited by moderator]
[Comments removed by moderator]
One investor in AJLucas was unhappy! And the point is?
I have no wish to get into a repeat discussion with you about how the majority of people invest in these companies, but few do so as a long term hold. The majority will buy in at a price and sell when they think it right, and then may easily buy again a few days later. Many of these decisions will have little to do with the progress of the company. Many will take a profit that then gives them a free ride on their remaining holding, so that if the price falls they couldn’t care less.
I really can see no connection between someone investing in AJLucas and UKOG. There may be some, but only a few I suspect. More likely to be a connection between those invested in UKOG and Angus-it is called the Weald.
I think you’ll find it’s more than one
I think UK is in serious trouble in term of their energy security plan which is a big mess because they have made commitments to all but achieved none. Commitments to: Renewables are firms and popular but expensive and unrealistic, phasing out coal is morally amd environmentally good but costly and going nowhere, shale development is firm in policy and words but unproven and going nowhere, nuclear power is like shale gas very firm but expansive and too slow that may not meet deadline. So while the government is pretty smart in saying a diverse mixture of energy sources (renewables gas nuclear) is the way to go but their ‘diverse’ commitments also dilute their focuses that achieve non of the objectives.
I fully support Home Grown Oil, beats living next to a Chinese French run nuclear power station. That I would have a problem with! To use Free’s phrase Viva La BB.
Why do you not report on protestors from out of the area going to Lancashire, Surrey, etc. . Pot Kettle
You mean like Lorraine Allanson going to Blackpool do you?
Fib. Your comments regarding supply chain issues for cobalt in EV and battery storage is a good example of the lack of engineering and economic model understanding by the eco warriors and their Green commerades.
Just generally. I do believe the HH / BB protestors (protectyors) have frequented more than one county.
Ms Allanson gets about quite a bit too 😉 Who was that guy they shipped in all the way from the USA – ah yes the Frackmaster
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/06/27/us-frack-master-accused-of-80m-fraud-to-fund-debauchery/
I make no apology for for supporting Weald oil as a investor or as a UK citizen. Incase you hadn’t noticed we (the UK ) are broke. Three visits to A&E show me that a 7 hour queue for a patient with hear complications after surgery, that resus bays are cramped , that reception is closed due to a leak,
In the community dementia patients get one phone call every 6 months. Roads are cracking up.
Councils can’t meet thier responsibilities fir carer reviews, Surrey councuil needed a budget busting raise in council tax for social care.
I’m looking after my disabled wife & father in law and I get grief from protestors who abandon thier responsibilities and protest. Even using up police resources during an election after a terror attack.
As the state only pay £525 for his care and his needs cost £850 (per week! )
The U.K. needs the income from Weald oil.
Tony – I join you in your concern for our failing health service. How much tax income do you think the government will get from Weald oil and what is the NHS annual budget?
I don’t consider protesting to be any kind of abandonment of my responsibilities. Can you explain that one to me
Tony, Refracktion also meant to ask you how much do you think the NHS budget should be cut to finance his plan to increase investments in inefficient and impractical renewable energy generating installations. Protesters do not feel that they are abandoning their responsibilities, because most of them never really had any.
Even the big oil majors are getting into the NIMBY attitudes.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/argentina-shale-idUKL1N1K919Z
So maybe the unhappy private investors are right. Even these big oil majors are not happy to invest in their own backyard. UK shale gas is somewhat similar to renewables. A good idea with full of promises but seems unrealistic and yet to deliver its objectives.
TW – lose the word “good” and I can almost agree with you
I think both are good ideas but unrealistic in their objectives. There could never be 100% renewables in the near future neither there will be massive shale production in UK. Both industries will find that they have mutual opposition.
I agree TW (although of course it does depend on your definition of “near”) – the difference between the two (for me) is that only one of those is a sensible or desirable aspiration (and it’s not shale production in the UK)