Campaigners challenging well testing in the West Sussex village of Balcombe believe their case has been helped by a minister’s recent admission on production from new oil fields.
A junior energy minister, Amanda Solloway, suggested that most of the oil extracted from new UK fields would be sold on the international market, rather than to UK consumers.
In a written answer to a parliamentary question, she said:
“It is not desirable to force private companies to ‘allocate’ oil and gas produced in the North Sea for domestic use.”
She was responding to a question by Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown, who asked whether new gas and oil produced in the North Sea would be allocated for domestic use.
The issue of national energy security is central to the challenge against oil operations at Balcombe.
Frack Free Balcombe Residents’ Association (FFBRA) is seeking to overturn planning permission for a well test that would confirm whether the Balcombe well was commercially viable.
A planning inspector ruled in February 2023 that national need for oil outweighed harm to the surrounding protected High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
A FFBRA spokesperson said:
“We in Balcombe have been told that national energy security requires us to sacrifice our countryside and our health for as little as 50 barrels of oil a day.
“Yet in parliament we heard that 500 million barrels won’t help national energy security or reduce domestic oil prices.
“The reason the planning inspector gave to overrule the protection of the High Weald AONB is now acknowledged to be completely incorrect.
“The madness of onshore shale oil development has been exposed and needs to stop.”
The Balcombe well test was classed as a major development in the AONB. Under planning law, it should be approved only in exceptional circumstances and where it was in the national interest. The inspector ruled that national need for oil justified the development.
FFBRA failed at the High Court last year to overturn the inspector’s decision. The group is now seeking permission to take its challenge to the Court of Appeal.
In a separate case, a planning inspector ruled that the national need for oil outweighed the impact of oil production at Biscathorpe on the Lincolnshire Wolds AONB. Campaigners have submitted papers to the High Court to challenge this decision.
The government has repeatedly claimed that new oil and gas licences would deliver energy security.
But analysis, published today by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, found that opening more than 100 new fields in the North Sea and to the west of Shetland would supply only around 1% of fuel to UK refineries for domestic use.
MPs will vote today on the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill, that would require annual licensing rounds for the North Sea. A former energy minister, Chris Skidmore, resigned on Friday, saying he could not support the bill.
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DRILL OR DROP? 
The companies applying for new licences are international, using their own cash to explore in the hope of finding an exploitable resource. This is how free-market capitalism works. If we were to impose rules on them that they were not allowed to sell in the free market then many of them would invest elsewhere to the detriment of the UK Exchequer. For the sake of UK prosperity I suggest we want to keep them engaged. I trust we can all agree that fossil fuels will be required for quite a few years to come ? I hope no-one is deluded enough to want to turn them off before we have reliable alternatives in place. Since most of the eventual oil and gas will come to the UK through pipelines we at least should be able to direct it, as needed, in the case of an emergency. Of course it would be helpful if we still had a functioning refinery. I see Ineos, the only refinery in Scotland is talking about closing as it’s becoming uneconomical to refine there because of the higher cost of electricity in the UK due to our short sighted investment in unreliable and expensive renewables and the banning of cheaper alternatives such as coal.
I will watch Balcombe with interest. I’m unclear what drives the the anti brigade there, surely not a desire to adversely affect the prosperity of the country, surely not to support the alternative to free-market Capitalism (Communism ?), surely not to damage civilisation by turning off fossil fuels ? What then ? The fear of a huge earthquake and tsunami ? Has someone put an irrational fear in them ? Or could it just be blinkered Nimbyism ?
I can quite understand some should want to be confused by the statement, what I can’t understand is why they would want to display their utter ignorance about how most have received discounted energy prices in UK when the renewables failed to offer the “cheap” energy previously claimed. Must be a few wealthy individuals who don’t have much empathy for those less well off.
It is called taxation, folks, at 75% currently and then the money used for that purpose, or maybe even the NHS. Whether the oil/gas is used domestically, or exported, the taxation is made at the point it is produced. In UK case taxation for UK to decide what to do with it. Imported oil and gas also taxed at point of production-and better not to look at what some of that money is used for. At best, it is a Sovereign Wealth Fund that generates more income to be distributed. Where? Well, Sovereign may be a clue. At worst? To fund wars that UK taxpayers are then expected to contribute within the cost of defending!
I really find it amusing that anyone should try and excite anyone else with such nonsense. No wonder they lost 6-0.
I also find it a bit of a nonsense that there is a big “claim” that UK will develop all this renewable stuff and masses of jobs will be created as the technology and products are EXPORTED! Bit inconvenient, but the antis have never believed in getting anything to add up.