Photo: Horse Hill Protection Camp
At about 4.30 this morning, campaigners said they occupied the so-called “Gatwick Gusher” oil site at Horse Hill in Surrey.
They said they wanted to raise awareness about climate change, air and water pollution and the industrialisation of the countryside.
The site, near Gatwick Airport, made national news in 2015 when one of the main investors, UK Oil and Gas, described the oil find as a “world class resource” that was as “good as the North Sea”
But during flow testing, there were daily protests and some residents reported health problems and traffic disruption.
The site, operated by Horse Hill Developments Ltd, received planning permission last month for a further two wells and testing. DrillOrDrop
Campaigner Tina Williamson said in a statement why she had occupied the site:
“The majority of known fossil fuel reserves must be left in the ground if we are to avoid catastrophic climate change.
“Starting a new oil rush in these circumstances is completely reckless, particularly when it uses unconventional techniques linked to air and water pollution.
“We call on the Government to ban new unconventional oil and gas exploration and invest urgently in renewables and energy efficiency”.
The site is among several in the South East, exploring for ‘tight oil’ in low permeability rocks, using techniques such as acidisation.
Opponents of drilling fear it could be the first of many. UKOG Chairman Stephen Sanderson has spoken about the possibility of what are called ‘incremental step outs’ across the South East, and the need to drill ‘back to back’ wells as production declines steeply for this type of deposit.
7am
Campaigners tweet:
“Good morning from the Horse Hill protection camp where we’ve set up home”
7.45am
Campaigners say police are now at the site.
The activists have pitched a tent at the site and posted pictures online of the drill site.
Photo: Horse Hill Protection Camp
Horse Hill well pad: Photo: Horse Hill Protection Camp
11.45am
Campaigners say they have been threatened with eviction
Platform being constructed. Photo: Scott Breen
1.25pm
Reports say security guards had begun to evict campaigners at the drill site.
Still from video by Scott Breen
Video shows people on two tripods and at least two campaigners on a scaffolding tower. A vans is parked across the site gate.
Green Party MEP Keith Taylor offers support
“I want to offer my solidarity and sincerest thanks to the Horse Hill Protectors who are currently occupying the Gatwick Gusher drill site in Surrey. The dedicated campaigners have put their lives on hold to fight against climate-destructive and dangerous unconventional drilling. And they are not only fighting to protect against the industrialisation of the Surrey Hills Area of Oustanding Natural Beauty – they are fighting against the climate breakdown.”
“Whether the protesters’ action lasts five hours, five days, or five weeks, they are making a stand against the exploitation of our resources and for the protection of both people and planet for years to come. They deserve our admiration and gratitude.”
“Ministers’ commitment to an unconventional oil and gas rush across the UK is entirely ideologically driven. It’s a commitment that will ensure the UK fails to meet its legally-binding climate change targets under the Climate Change Act and Paris Agreement.”
6.20pm
The Surrey Mirror reports that bailiffs pulled three people off the tower and out of the site. Three people remain on the tower.
6.36pm
The Surrey Mirror reports that bailiffs expect to be at the site overnight and will wait for protesters to come down off the platform tower. The paper says three people remain on the tower, two are on tripods and other are sitting on the site fencing. Another group is next to the road, outside the site.
We’ll update this report as we get more details
Categories: protest
DRILL OR DROP? 
Goodness me, ‘unconventional techniques’ are being used? No they are not. This is a traditional limestone oil well which may be acidised something that has a 120 year history of causing no problems whatsoever. HCl, or food additive E507 is no big deal anyway.
If these people want to do something about fossil fuels, stop using em to drive to the site. Especially as its to perform criminal activity.
Just before you all go off on one…..
The stated reasons for the activists’ presence; ‘They said they wanted to raise awareness about climate change, air and water pollution and the industrialisation of the countryside.’
Traditional? The micrite has failed to flow in the past at commercial rate. It is an unconventional hydrocarbon source, of low permeability. Ask an honest geologist whose living does not depend on weasly words and jobs from the oil and gas boys. You know, back to back wells sound like a bad scenario anyway, whether acidised, fracked or ‘traditional’ – which they are not, not traditional. If we are talking limestone, the oolite, way down under, is sometimes commercially permeable, sometimes naturally cemented, so not. Micrite/Kimmeridge limestone? Traditionally, prospectors in the micrite have lost their deposit. ‘Tis surmised that the Gatwick Gusher, prior to being a camp site, drilled through a fault, hence the surprising but probably unrepeatable gush. If gush there was, other than of weasly words.
Kathryn, you have no serious or professional knowledge of this, yet seem fit to describe yourself as an expert. Engineers, in and out of the industry have no issues with this. Its the acid in your stomach! Most wells are treated with some chemicals and acid is top of the list. Why are you concerned about a process that has 120 year history and is used in water wells, and that you can buy in B and Q for a few quid to clean patios? I used to do that and flush it straight onto my lawn. No issue as the acis is ‘spent’ in seconds. Thats the point. Its used as its reactive and dissolves certain materials, particularly limestone and is not an issue. http://www.food-info.net/uk/e/e507.htm
I’m sure you find Prof. Smyth’s comments very comforting Kathryn, but whether they are real is certainly open to question-if a “scientist” uses such phrases as “surmised” I become dubious. Too close to speculation to me to be scientific. Such phrases should never appear in a “scientific” appraisal-one of the first lessons I was given when supplying technical reports into scientific assessments.
Anyway, should all be over and done with now as these young people will have needed to get off to work!
Don’t worry, “if” they jobs to go to, when it starts raining or gets too cold, they’ll jump in their fossil fuel powered, planet destroying vehicles and drive off into the sunset in a haze of globally warming CO2 and turn up the heating in the office LOL!
“unconventional” “not traditional”. Arguments which could have been , and often were, used against every social, medical & technological advance in the past 200 years.
Can anyone provide information on ANY damage to communities near UK drilling sites in the last 10 years? ( Excluding the disruption caused by protest mobs.)
Remember that Greenpeace used the same tactics against chlorine in our water and PVC, which they called a ‘poison plastic’.
For information – ‘poison plastic’….
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/19/more-plastic-than-fish-in-the-sea-by-2050-warns-ellen-macarthur
Click to access 11899.full.pdf
The first onshore gas wells were in 1896, so it’s closer to 100 years than 10
Duh, 121 years and counting..
OK, so in the major news today. A couple of activists have gone onto a site. The police are there. Soon they’ll be gone, arrested, then in court. They’ll be found guilty of several things and ordered to pay around £300.
Done.
Did Sanderson say at BB site the limestone levels might have to be stimulated, which they don’t have regulatory permission for there or HH? The list of breaches is getting longer by the day Rod. Fred glad you are calling cars planet destroying too. I applaud the protectors for being able to camp out all year round protecting our environment, rather than sitting in the warm and dry worrying about one’s investments.
Well, Fred, trust your “investments” are doing well. Let’s just hope those “investments” if they are doing well, produce lots of taxation to allow some to camp out all year round, and that the warm and dry is affordable to the less well off!
Yep. Quite agree. Poison plastics? What is the entire interior of the car made from? The mobile phone, the tablet that the protestors are using to cordinate the protests? The sheets they will use to shelter from the rain? The fleece jacket they’ll wear to keep warm? Yes, those are poison plastic too.
Plastic is killing the oceans? No. It’s the irresponsible use of plastic by humans that is destroying the oceans. It is a huge problem, a disaster even. But it is not the plastic’s fault. It is 100% the fault of the people using and discarding their plastic irresponsibly.
Please think carefully when posting here from your mobile phone – Without modern polymer chemistry, it simply wouldn’t be possible.
Paula, just to put the record straight, I have absolutely no financial interest in oil or gas. I DO worry about the national economy & about the apparent ability of mobs to disrupt legal activities with which they disagree. Play the ball not the person.
The meteoric rise of lithium-ion batteries in the transport and IT sectors has been spurred by demand for technologies that reduce carbon emissions and decrease energy use. While this sounds like a win for everyone, there’s a darker side that could alter the perceptions of ethically minded consumers and create significant risks for brands.
If you look at the production of cobalt and lithium used in these batteries, a stark picture emerges of an industry exposed to issues such as child labor, modern slavery, and the undermining of land and water rights.
In a 2013 report, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Design for the Environment program concluded that batteries using nickel and cobalt, like lithium-ion batteries, have the “highest potential for environmental impacts”. It cited negative consequences like mining, global warming, environmental pollution and human health impacts.
UK requires daily 1.5 million barrels of oil and 3 trillion cubic feet of gas to keep lights on. Renewables will be along in a few years, don’t panic. Greg Clarke MP released his energy plans last month
Click to access BEIS_The_Clean_Growth_online_12.10.17.pdf
Labour Party also proposed recently £500 billion energy plans.
Energy storage from renewables is catching up fast with vanadium redox flow systems, some of the better ones.
Correct me if I’m wrong but the Surrey sites are already naturally fracked?