Night working on the Brockham sidetrack, January 2017. Photo: Brockham Protection Camp
More than 20,000 people have signed a petition launched yesterday demanding a stop on shale oil production at Angus Energy’s Brockham site in Surrey.
The site operates under an old-style environmental permit and the petition says production from the Kimmeridge shale oil layers, expected to begin soon, would be “neither properly regulated or monitored”.
It says a modern environmental permit must be put in place before production can start. It also calls for:
- baseline monitoring of air and water quality before oil extraction begins at the site
- full disclosure of the type and quantity of chemicals, including acids, that can be used in the well
Extract from 38 Degrees petition on Brockham oil production showing signatures at 4.30pm on 25 October 2018.
The petition, hosted by 38-degrees, says the Brockham site, near Dorking, is “about to be subject to a new and controversial type of oil extraction and production”. It says:
“This involves the use of chemicals, acids, reinjected waste fluids and gas flaring which can release toxins into our air and water sources. These risk harm to our health and environment.”
DrillOrDrop has previously reported about the regulatory loopholes of an old-style environmental permit. At the Brockham site, the Environment Agency has said it does not require monitoring of air or water quality and there are no restrictions on the volume or concentration of acid that can be used in the well.
The Environment Agency has been working on a modern permit for the site for the past two years but there is no information on when this process will be completed. Under the regulations, site operators can continue to work under the old terms while the new permit is being prepared.
Side-track well
The Kimmeridge shale oil will be extracted using a side-track well, which Surrey County Council said was drilled without planning permission. The council granted retrospective consent in August 2018 for both drilling and appraisal of the well.
Angus Energy reported to shareholders it would carry out a seven-day well test at another site, at Balcombe in West Sussex, before starting work on the Brockham well.
The Balcombe test was completed at the beginning of this month (October 2018) and Angus said in statement it would
“take our next steps towards producing from the Kimmeridge layers in the near future at the Brockham Field”.
The company said production at Brockham would not use “hydraulic fracturing or ‘fracking’”.
But the campaign group, Brockham Oil Watch, which launched the petition yesterday, said:
“Brockham will be amongst the first sites in the country to attempt commercial production from shale rock. The target Jurassic Kimmeridge layer has been compared by the authorities to the Bakken Formation in North Dakota, where the use of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling brought about mass industrialisation and thousands of wells.”
The group said:
“Angus Energy now have carte blanche to commence extraction from unconventional geology using new methods that are neither properly regulated or monitored.
“In the interests of people’s health and the environment this new activity should not be allowed, at the very least until a new Environmental Permit with stricter modern regulation and control is in place.
“We simply seek to properly respect and protect our health and environment and are asking the Environment Agency and Government to do the same.”
Fluid reinjection
The Brockham site has been used to reinject fluid produced from rock formations during oil extraction.
The petition also calls for:
- A halt to the reinjection of fluid at Brockham
- Details of what fluid is being reinjected at the site
DrillOrDrop invited Angus Energy to comment to the points made in petition. The company has not responded to our invitation but it has posted a frequently asked questions section on its website
Categories: Opposition
DRILL OR DROP? 
They do know that BP/Perennco have been producing from the Kimmeridge at Kimmeridge for over 50 years don’t they?
Reblogged this on nearlydead.
Already authorised. Nothing to see. Move on.
This is not North Dakota and is not fracking.
Bit like saying someone wants to keep a couple of chickens in his back garden but elsewhere in the world chickens are kept by the million in industrial complexes, so the couple need to be stopped. About as poor as I have seen on DoD for at least two years.
Full speed ahead with a new style permit would be in order.
This to clear the way for Weald Limestone Oil.
Another petition………..
The BP (now Perenco) wells at Kimmeridge produce from Middle Jurassic Cornbrash Limestone which is below the Kimmeridge Clay so probably not the same as at the Angus Brockham Well. It is fractured porosity however and has been producing since 1964 (discoverd in ’59) with a “nodding donkey” and has produced in excess of 3 million barrels of oil. It is a tourist attraction.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240675816_The_Kimmeridge_Bay_Oilfield_Dorset_UK_Onshore
Perhaps Angus can look forward to 50 years plus production at Brockham?
Keep destroying the precious planet we live on! Not content with just the surface…Pity the future – full of cancer and guess what, no NHS…its’ been bought by Trump! 😦
What do you fill your car with [edited by moderator]
Ha good one Paul 50 years! 😂
I have to agree with you Dorkinian, Angus do not impress me at all……
Dear Paul,
Thank you for the link. The Kimmeridge oilfield takes its name from its surface location – near the Kimmeridge Bay and nearby village. The oil comes from a different layer, as you say above. Cornbrash Limestone is within the Great Oolite formation, and this deposit is contained within an anticline – one of the most common structural traps. This is totally different to oil and gas contained within the unconventional Kimmeridge clay – a source rock and a reservoir at the same time.
BOW – thanks for the clarification – I am not a geologist but it certainly appeared to be different.
First they laugh at you
Then they ignore you
Then they fight you
Then they loose.
Marcus
Yes, they laughed at UKOG!
Shall we start referring to antis as hypocrites?
[edited by moderator] try and preach to the rest of us to not use fossil fuel.
Do the camoflauge crew understand how electricity is produced?
It really is all about turning a blind eye when it suits them.
It’s a choice. 100% of mine is hydroelectric.
Another country surrounded by sea with the benefit of a large tidal range might choose to implement tidal projects, instead unconventional shale gas and oil are forced on British voters by an anti-renewable focussed government. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jun/19/huge-mistake-britain-throwing-away-lead-in-tidal-energy-say-developers
Its about time this oil company was left alone to do its work. Theres been enough protests and enough lies told about ho they’re “fracking.” They’re not their only crime is to have found oil in the green and pleasant hills of surrey rather than the foreign lands the nimbies would rather have their oil delivered from.
Wake up nimbies we can’t afford the carbon footprint of importing oil from thousands of miles away forever and neither should we be doing so in times of global unrest as we are today.
We’re close to war with Russia for goodness sake, Iran’s going badly and our allies the americans are upsetting the chinese.
We need local oil its of national importance and is a security of the nation imperativ. Please stop standing in the peoples way and let us have the billions of barrels of UK oil it looks like we have there.
Brockham has been producing oil for more than 30 years. Production from the Kimmeridge is not using fracking and it’s not going to use any “new type of oil extraction”. The Kimmeridge has free-flowed oil at Horse Hill, Balcombe and Lidsey.
It’s amazing how many gullible folk out there fall for the propaganda spouted by the likes of DoD and Brockham Oil Watch. Hysteria based on lies and misinformation, which will fall flat on its face as it has done many times before.
For the record, DrillOrDrop has never stated nor suggested that Angus intend to use High Volume Hydraulic Fracturing at Brockham, so perhaps the misinformation is on your side R8 LMX…?
Not at all Paul, as I’ve never stated they are going to use fracking either. The petition you link to, does however attempt such a link in its reference to North Dakota and “this type of new activity should not be allowed”.
Angus Energy are not fracking and North Dakota has nothing to do with the activity that Angus *will* be engaging in, which is conventional production, just as has existed at Brockham for 30yrs+.
DoD is complicit in spreading misinformation, as usual.
I note the “Residents call for block” headline and the “20,000 people have signed” reference. Brockham’s population is around 3,000.
Interesting spin, as always.
I find Drill or Drop to be consistently scrupulous in their reporting. There’s no better or more balanced reporting anywhere.
Bless you R8 LMX, you still don’t understand what an unconventional reservoir is do you? The KCF (the Brockham sidetrack target) is unconventional which means it needs to be hydraulically fractured like the Bakken (which it is analogous to according to the British Geological Survey, the Oil and Gas Authority etc.) or if it’s politically expedient, stimulated in an another way e.g. by acid fracking or matrix acidisation, higher pressures will get job done better but any of these three will get tight mictrite/shale oil to flow .
Get with the program R8LMX I’ve explained all this to you before but it doesn’t seem to sink in?
Dork…the Kimmeridge is naturalky frqctured and oil is free flowing at Horse Hill. Iy has also free flowed with no frwcjing at Balcombe and Lidsey.
No fracking.
North Dakota is an irrelevance.
Keep up.
Excuse typos…fat fingers.
They are not fracking. How many times do you need to be told? You are making yourself look silly.
An interesting perspective on wastewater – being reinjected at Brockham with no water monitoring or baseline data. Makes you think..
https://phys.org/news/2018-10-fracking-wastewater-accumulation-freshwater-mussels.html?fbclid=IwAR1hRacG76iSzUtoyMhqpkfrGXstDK4KeSj3IjxhGj_iEf3rgxXvXF0h0nI
Waste Water
Good that Angus re inject their produced water. Offshore you just pop it in the sea.
Your link may mean more for Lancashire that the Weald at present.
The BGS and DECC (now OGA) compared the Kimmeridge to the Bakken formation in the “The Jurassic shales of the Weald Basin:
geology and shale oil and shale gas resource estimation” report. If that’s not convincing, Angus Energy made the same comparison boasting about their assets: https://drillordrop.com/2017/11/20/angus-explains-lidsey-oil-disappointment-and-compares-kimmeridge-to-leading-us-oil-field/
Mr Sanderson, head of UKOG (which is targeting the same Kimmeridge Formation at Horse Hill and Broadford Bridge) made it very clear in the various media engagements that what is stopping a North Dakota style back-to-back drilling is the “inefficient” regulatory system, and especially the requirement to obtain planning permission (which is what the Government proposed to scrap in their permitted development and NSIP proposals).