Egdon Resources has announced plans for a new well and oil production at its site at Biscathorpe in Lincolnshire.
A statement from the company this morning said it would seek planning permission by the end of February 2021.
The application to Lincolnshire County Council would include a sidetrack from the existing Biscathorpe-2 well. It would also seek permission for appraisal and long-term production.
The company said the details would be given to the site’s community liaison group this evening. A virtual consultation would be planned before the application was submitted, the company said.
The statement said the drilling target would be a” thickened Westphalian sandstone reservoir interval”. It would also target oil in the Dinantian Carbonate, the company said.
The Biscathorpe-2 well, drilled in early 2019, failed to find its target.
Environmental impact assessment
Egdon’s Biscathorpe site is in the Lincolnshire Wolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is also close to a tributary of the River Bain, a nationally-important chalk stream.
Lincolnshire County Council ruled that Egdon would need to carry out an environmental impact assessment for the proposal. This is a detailed review of the effects of the development submitted in an environmental statement as part of the application.
The council concluded that Egdon’s plan “introduces potential risk of significant impacts on ‘sensitive areas'” and is “likely to have significant effects on the environment”.
Egdon Resources said the environmental statement would allow it to “identify and address any potential environmental impacts arising from the proposed activity.”
The managing director of Egdon Resources, Mark Abbott, said:
“Biscathorpe represents a material and financially robust opportunity to secure a lower carbon footprint (when compared to imports) indigenous source of oil which would generate local and regional economic benefits.
“Our planning application will include long term production, which if approved would provide clarity on planning, ahead of further drilling and would enable rapid development in a success case.
“We are committed to consulting with the local community and other stakeholders and today’s community liaison group meeting provides an opportunity to commence this process as we continue to develop the detailed planning application for submission.”
Egdon Resources holds 35.8% in the Biscathorpe licence, PEDL253. Another partner, Union Jack Oil, which has a 30% stake, said:
“We consider Biscathorpe to be a key, potentially high-impact project within our well balanced portfolio. PEDL253 remains, in the opinion of the Company’s management, one of the UK`s largest onshore un- appraised conventional licences.”
DrillOrDrop will report on reaction to Egdon’s plans and follow the application through the planning process.
Updated to include information from Lincolnshire County Council’s screening opinion
DRILL OR DROP? 
Keeping an eye here on permission creep. Every stage seems to give rise to the next and before anyone can say anything there is a sudden need to use another spur, or well stimulation or, the great planners in the sky forfend, greater depth and hey presto “we’ve found shale gas and need to frack”!
Deborah
Unless the geology has changed and we need to rewrite the geology text books for that area of the UK I think your concerns are unwarranted..
Meanwhile there is a well drilled for shale gas at Misson. It’s drilled into the shale with the purpose of fracking it. They have found gas, but cannot frack it. No mission creep there!
So more like concern creep, tho i think WAG is too dog for that. The group who found little evidence that local oil provides local jobs yet are near the UKs largest onshore oilfield, and the locals who work at it.
Well, surely that is the purpose of exploration, Deborah??!!
Surprised that even something so basic eludes you, but it does help to explain the level of knowledge (or lack of) shown within the tracker survey.
Your “hey presto” is somewhat excluded by a moratorium upon fracking. Suspect Egdon are aware of that, as they are to invest money, and just might have taken into account the probability of extracting oil within the framework that is allowed. Or, maybe they just want to drill a hole to enable them to dispose of some radio active waste on behalf of RR? (Goodness, these alternatives need a lot to support them!)
No end to conspiracy theories, if that is what floats your boat.
It may not be “shale gas”, so clever you…. they won’t be “hydraulic fracturing for shale gas” (the conveniently narrow definition of ‘fracking’ used in the moratorium) but they could well decide they need to “hydraulic fracture” for natural gas or oil, as they have at Wressle. Or they may decide acidisation is a better route – another one they planned for Wressle before deciding it interfered with their Proppant Squeeze. Deborah is right – mission creep involving more & more invasive methods is always on the cards.
Alex9391
Deborah said shale gas – and there is a world of difference between HPHV shale gas (or oil ) and standard stuff in LIncs and Notts. So, no nothing clever, just being specific.
Yep, they may want to frack as per Misson (see DOD passim ad infinitum) . As they (companies) have been fracking around Notts Lincs for a long time. More and more invasive? What does that mean – more ways of working (see link below) as knowledge develops – yes.
Its not mission creep, its par for the course.
There was a lot of chat about this early on, when the anti fracking movement were at pains to clarify concerns were not about the fracking done to date on the small scale onshore oil and gas wells (as per various frack meeting parallel to Ineos meetings and at Misson), but it was the industrial shale gas fracking that was the issue (scale / industrialisation of the the countryside / vast water usage / emissions / compression / lorries / wild west towns full of trouble / thousand of lorries / premature births / cancer / stress / methane in drinking water / blow outs / ER response ) etc etc.
I have lived near the fracked Farleys wood field and still live in the middle of the East Midlands Basin (see page 7 for map – page 10 on for what it takes to get the stuff out)
So, its not mission creep, more like project fear creep.
Click to access Upland-Resources-Initiation-of-coverage.pdf
its all small beer, and maybe Lincolnshire will be self sufficient in oil one day, primarily because it does not need so much as it uses today.
But if you do not like oil and gas development onshore in the UK, then no matter what is said and done – it will not be OK.
Alex 9391
Though drilling for stuff and standing round the hole may mean you do not get the full info of what goes on.
See link. Just get a hard hat on and go have a look. No mission creep.