The operators of a mothballed well site in an East Yorkshire village have been accused of apparently “misusing the planning system for their own benefit”.

The West Newton B oil and gas site, north-east of Hull, has seen no activity since 2022.

But a month before the site’s three-year planning permission was due to expire, the operator, Rathlin Energy, told council planners that work was about to start, keeping the consent alive.

We Said No, a local group, opposed to Rathlin’s operations, criticised the company for apparently “kicking the can down the road”.

It said the news had “again sown fear and anxiety amongst local residents, placing them in the unfair position of having to worry about what may be coming”.

The group said:

“It seems like they [Rathlin] are misusing the planning system for their own benefit”.

The planning permission, granted by East Riding of Yorkshire Council on 17 March 2022, allowed the company three more years to drill another well at West Newton B. The original consent was approved in June 2015.

The time extension required Rathlin to give 14 days’ notice of when work would start.

But since 2022, operations at West Newton-B has been suspended. Plans for a horizontal well were postponed three times and Rathlin’s focus appeared to switch to the neighbouring well site, West Newton A.

Has the West Newton B permission expired?

This week, on the third anniversary of the 2022 permission, DrillOrDrop.com asked East Riding of Yorkshire Council whether the consent had now expired, given that the site had been mothballed for three years.

The council said it had been formally notified by Rathlin of the start of operations at West Newton-B.

The council said the notification had been sent on 13 February 2025, indicating that work was due to start on 28 February, 17 days before the expiry of the planning permission.

The three-year planning permission will now expire on 28 February 2028, nearly six years after the time extension was granted and nearly 13 years after the original permission.

A spokesperson for Rathlin Energy (UK) Limited, said:

“We wrote to East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s planning department on 13 February 2025 to confirm our intention to commence work at the site. Preliminary activities have since taken place – which are within the parameters of the approved planning application.”

DrillOrDrop.com asked Rathlin what activities have since taken place. A company spokesperson said:

“It is work that is provided for under Rathlin’s planning permission and EA [Environment Agency] permit. 

“They [Rathlin] are currently reconfiguring onsite power supply arrangements to accommodate permitted operations.”

We asked the same question of East Riding of Yorkshire Council. A spokesperson said:

“The work is described as minor civil works at the surface followed by the initial conductor drilling operators to a shallow depth, providing a stable base for the main drilling rig and to protect surface formations during the main drilling operations.” 

We also asked the council whether it had checked what work had been carried out to keep the planning permission alive.

The council spokesperson said:

“There is no requirement to check the work which is being carried out, the submission of the letter was a 14 day notification of the start of the 36 month [permission], and so the 36 month period commences on 28 February 2025 and must therefore cease before 28 February 2028 in accordance with condition 1. 

We Said No told DrillOrDrop.com:

“The local communities have had enough of Rathlin Energy and have suffered for over a decade in one way or another.

“Moving forward Rathlin do not have the financial resource available to drill the horizontal well at West Newton B, let alone several others at West Newton A.

“It seems blatant that East Riding of Yorkshire Council and Rathlin Energy do not have their local constituents’ wellbeing at the forefront of their operations.

“In the meantime, local monitors will be keeping a watchful eye on both sites, and will be recording any movements using whatever means are available at their disposal.”

West Newton official updates

Recent formal stock market announcements about operations at West Newton have suggested that future operations would focus on the West Newton A site, not at West Newton B.

In February 2024, Rathlin’s majority owner, Reabold Resources, announced plans to drill a single new well at West Newton A by the end of 2024, subject to funding. (This did not happen).

In June 2024, Reabold said gas from West Newton A would be exported via a 3.5km pipeline to the National Transmission System.

In September 2024, Reabold said an application had been made to recomplete the existing West Newton A-2 well. It later emerged this was a reservoir stimulation, or small-scale hydraulic fracture.

None of Reabold’s stock market notifications in the past 12 months have specifically referred to operations at West Newton B.

Companies like Reabold that are listed on the AIM stock exchange are required to issue notifications, without delay, about new developments which are not public knowledge, on key changes which would be likely to lead to substantial movement in the price of AIM securities.

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