A decision on gas exploration plans near the Surrey village of Dunsfold is expected by June 2022.
A planning inspector has submitted a recommendation on the proposals by UK Oil & Gas plc (UKOG).
The final decision will be made by the secretary of state for levelling up.
In a statement to shareholders this morning, UKOG, reported that the minister was expected to issue his decision on or before Tuesday 7 June 2022.
The exploration proposal was considered by a public inquiry in July and August 2021. This followed two votes to refuse planning permission by Surrey County Council (details here and here)
UKOG had sought consent for vertical and lateral wells at the site, also known as Loxley.
Key issues at the inquiry included the impact of the site on the nearby Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty as well as on climate change, and local roads and businesses.
UKOG has said if it found gas at Loxley/Dunsfold it would seek permission to use it as a feedstock for hydrogen.
Referring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, UKOG’s chief executive, Stephen Sanderson, said today:
“We believe new UK domestic gas, from sites such as Loxley, could help increase security of supply and help mitigate against such price volatility. In these respects, moving Loxley forward would also be entirely consistent with the Prime Minister’s recent statement regarding a new energy strategy that includes using more domestic hydrocarbons to reduce Russian imports.”
The UK imports less than 4% of its gas consumption from Russia. Half UK gas comes from the North Sea. Of imports, 55% is from Norway, 20% from Qatar and 11% from the US.
Earlier this year, Dunsfold’s MP, Jeremy Hunt, described the UKOG plans at “extraordinary”, given the UK’s carbon reduction targets. It would, he said, take the country in “exactly the wrong direction”.
Categories: Regulation, slider
DRILL OR DROP? 
That is a lot of imports, currently.
CCC said UK production, particularly of gas, had a smaller carbon footprint than the international average.
No brainer. Come on Brains, get it flowing.
Interesting that Michael Gove is getting involved, wasn’t it him that stopped the drill at Leith Hill / Holmwood ? I wouldn’t count on the decision being in favour of UKOG.
I guess Slippery Sanderson didn’t want to waste the killing of innocent Ukrainians to get his 30 pieces of silver , just like the making of PPE during the pandemic.
Never let a good crisis get in the way of profit , it’s shameful.
Well, good morning folks, it’s Sunday 13th March 2022, and apparently the usual well paid multiple ID no-brainer roosters are all out and crowing “frackadoodle doo” from the top of the coop.
What a lot of self-serving frackas while Ukraine burns? As Jono writes
“Never let a good crisis get in the way of profit, it’s shameful.”
However. Those of us, who already have more than enough “brains” to tell that for some, morals, ethics or compassion, are nothing more than “academic”. Mere expediency and virtue signalling in order to “get it flowing”.
A curiously unspecific phrase, that could mean anything?
Oil? Gas? Water? Profiteering? Hysteria? Mass Formation Psychosis? Greed? Blood? Insanity? And still, nothing from the usual antitheses to admit that 1 in 5 people worldwide per year, including Great Britain, die of fossil fuel pollution. However, apparently the inconvenient truths, even when provided with substantiated and verified proof and documentation, are never to be admitted.
It’s a funny old world, isn’t it? (not).
I looked around for something to illustrate all of this present confusion and confabulation of the world in these strange times. The songs of Buffy Sainte Marie, who writes about her people’s own struggles against genocide and slavery to the European invaders, often go straight to the point.
So here is Buffy Sainte Marie’s “The Big Ones Get Away”:
Hey, Baby, I just got back from town
Where the bribes are paid
Honey, they turned my offer down
They say the deal’s already made
So now I gotta stand and watch
While it all comes down
And the buzzards and the hawks
And the judges and the mob
Circle round
Now if I were the queen of all the world
I would go in chains just to see you free
Of the ropes that bind you
And the role you play
And the pride that hooks you
While the big ones get away
Love junkies wanna change the world:
It quickly stays the same
Money junkies hire all the smart ones
Power junkies run the game
One step at a time
Polarity Hill
If the bad guys don’t get you, baby
Then the good guys will
With angels on the take
And the gangsters in the yard
Hey, don’t the wars come easy
Hey, don’t the peace come hard
Now if I had a way to reach the sky
I’d grab that crescent moon
Wield it like a knife
Save you from the lies
From the ropes that bind you
And the role you play
And the game that hooks you
While the big ones get away
Have a good, peaceful and rewarding Sunday with family and friends. And if you can, do your best to help those refugees fleeing from the war in Ukraine. Perhaps consider occasionally, that unless greed avarice and profiteering are stopped dead in their tracks, regardless of where they hide, or wherever they exist. Then all this will happen again. Next time it might be right here in Great Britain.
So, something with a smaller carbon footprint, as clarified by the CCC, should be avoided or delayed!
There you have it.
No concern for the planet, just a failed attempt at virtue signaling. Is it virtuous to increase a carbon footprint, is it moral, is it ethical?
Certainly not.
If contradiction is the best the antis can come up with, they really do have a huge issue with credibility. Just an interest in protest, none in progress.
Meanwhile, in USA , there are those, like the head of EQT, who indicate they can replace Russian gas by increasing output four fold by 2030. Shame that it will increase emissions dramatically to get it across the pond, but hey ho, carbon footprints are not a concern anymore. Sorry Greta, you had better get back to school, seems your comments about the exportation of carbon footprints have been rejected. Not by those you would expect, but by your own supporters.
Greed, avarice and profiteering? Indeed. Very common in all areas, including renewables. However, profit is good as profit generates a large area for taxation. If that area does not provide taxation guess what? The individual tax payer pays more or gets less.
Just more contradiction, and little consideration.
Indeed Martin: profit, by the anti’s rhetoric is evil! But a windfall tax on that profit is seen as good?!? Exsqueeze-me?
Education is needed in energy economics, when an energy’s price is high then it means it’s in demand! I see that we will be diesel rationing this summer, better fill up you gas guzzlers anti’s!! Haha
Windfall tax is a chokehold on the very industry which is allowing h this country to prosper through times of need! Renewables are not even scratching the surface, funny oil prices are destined for $130 – $200 a barrel when the entitled state that the oil and gas industry is globally finished!
It’s funny so many citizens of the world have huge morals!, but being involved in an energy production company your perceived as being corrupt, slippery, immoral and ever requiring profit!
EVERY company in the World requires Profit! or what do you believe happens if you don’t?, Ever worked?
It’s interesting the council have no-one in the understanding of energy industry, but are ignorant in to consuming the same everyday!
Remember this application from UKOG is for 3 years EXPLORATION only. There is absolutely no certainty that gas or oil will be found in commercially viable quantities, and if it s then UKOG will need to apply for a production license – another lengthy process. So there is quite likely 5 years before anything could be extracted – that’s 2027. The world will have moved on by then and be closer to phasing out fossil fuels.
What strange memories some have.
My memory tells me the price of gas was rising fast before the current conflict in Ukraine. That is what price does when there is an imbalance between supply and demand, which has now been exacerbated.
I suspect Mr. Gove will take account of new gas to be encouraged in the N.Sea and may not want to look as if he has two standards to apply if it is the rural south east, unless there is a compelling local circumstance. Don’t believe that has been demonstrated, with the officers supporting. Will be interesting.
Hmm, the PPE was an unfortunate reference. Wasn’t that a case of having to pay exorbitant prices to overseas suppliers as UK did not have manufacturing capacity when needed? Which, it has now rectified, with the taxpayer picking up the tab. Sounds very familiar.
Come on Brains, wouldn’t want a repeat, would “we”?
Gove has recused himself as being too close to the coalface. Minister of State for Housing is dealing with it.
If the question is how do we help people who are struggling with gas bills not just now but in the long term which would be the moral thing to do then surely the answer is not to perpetuate dependency on fossil fuels (the price of which will no doubt continue to rise in the future) but to accelerate the transition away from oil and gas towards renewables, rapidly roll out a proper national programme to insulate homes (providing jobs) and better manage demand and supply through smart metres etc., combined with emergency legislation in the short term to help those in fuel poverty (e.g. building on winter fuel allowance).
Kirsty:
Renewables cost money, there is no guarantee dependence on renewables will lower energy prices, remember the huge subsidies on renewables has to be paid back to the creditor!
How’s has the energy prices increased, after the huge push from renewables?!? and there is a knee jerk reaction to increasing hydrocarbons?
Renewable companies are not charities! Wakey wakey people…
Fossil fuels still benefit from huge subsidies. Governments around the world spend more than £313bn each year subsidising non-renewable energy, according to the UN Development Programme.
And your point is Kirsty?,
The world’s total, direct energy sector subsidies – including those to fossil fuels, renewables and nuclear power – are estimated to have been at least USD 634 billion in 2017.
Do you use FF’s in everyday life?
We consume over 92.5 million barrels a day globally, if we didn’t need hydrocarbons then why do you think we are consuming them?
Click to access Oils-Many-Uses-ENG.pdf
By 2050, total, annual energy subsidies could decline from USD 634 billion to USD 475 billion per year.
Hence, energy transition is just that. A ‘transition’ to Net Zero
Click to access IRENA_Energy_subsidies_2020.pdf
There is no sign that fossil fuels will be eliminated to reach net zero. The plan makes it clear they will not. Equally, there is no indication that renewables will be slowed by the continuing use of fossil fuels. Indeed the opposite is the case with much investment for renewables coming from the profits made from fossil fuels, either from the companies themselves or the taxation upon them.
As the world oil price is related to the dollar, and the £ has dropped so much against the dollar, then to increase the value of the £ by concentrating upon domestic industry would have a huge beneficial impact upon the cost of living. And reduce transport emissions, and add to security of supply. Those who want to rely upon those over the horizon are just making the whole situation worse, yet claim they are concerned for the UK population, and the environment. It really is a totally desperate and non sensical approach.
More renewables are becoming of limited value as more nuclear is required to back them up. More nuclear will take at least 30 years to come on stream, and be very expensive. Good job those fossil fuels are raising so much tax to contribute to that cost-but only the UK production will contribute UK profitability based tax. The Norwegians would just add more to their $1 trillion Sovereign Wealth Fund and enjoy the income to do things like insulation! Good for them-but, no good for us.
Mike Fulwood, senior research fellow with the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, said there were six developments in the UK North Sea pipeline, which if approved, could reduce gas imports by 15% a year.
We could cut the motorway speed limit to 55mph. According to Adair Turner, this could cut fuel consumption by 20% compared to driving at 65mph.
https://www.ft.com/content/364b27e3-0ba9-4b0a-9fa7-c48fb6350d36
https://trans.info/en/limit-speed-to-55-mph-on-motorways-279408
Very much depends on the vehicle, Paul. Some vehicles are pretty efficient in respect of fuel consumption at higher speeds. Revs of many vehicles at 70mph are pretty low. I used the motorways a lot when I worked. My fuel consumption was more efficient on motorways than on other roads, but my average speed was higher.
I would not like to be always driving at or close to the speed of HGVs on a motorway. That is a major safety benefit for motorways, that traffic can not be snarled up with HGVs but travel at a different speed and maintain a safe distance by so doing.
https://dailybusinessgroup.co.uk/2022/02/six-north-sea-oil-fields-poised-to-go-ahead-in-north-sea/
“Drilling is expected to be approved by the Oil and Gas Authority in the Rosebank field, to the west of Shetland, and at Jackdaw, Marigold, Brodick, Catcher and Tolmount East..
Their combined reserves are thought to be enough to power the UK for six months, with 62 million tonnes of oil-equivalent fuel in the ground.
It emerged a week ago that the Abigail oil and gas field off the east coast of Scotland was quietly approved and will be developed by Israel-based firm Ithaca Energy.
Work at the Cambo field was halted late last year by private equity-backed fossil fuel explorer Siccar Point Energy, after its project partner Shell pulled out of the project following fierce opposition from environmental activists.”
Cambo will have a new partner soon – perhaps it should be the UK Government?