The onshore oil company at the centre of a landmark Supreme Court judgement has announced trading would be suspended because its annual accounts would not be published on time.
In a brief notice to investors, released at 12.59 today, UK Oil & Gas (UKOG) said trading would be “temporarily suspended from 7.30am on 1st April 2025”.
The annual report and accounts [ARA] for the year ending 30 September 2024 were due to be published by Monday 31 March 2025, the deadline required by the AIM stock exchange.
But UKOG said “additional time” was required by its auditors.
The notice said the trading suspension would last “until such time as the ARA is published”. This would be “as soon as possible”, UKOG said.
UKOG shares rose about 37% yesterday but at the time of writing, UKOG shares had fallen more than 27% to 0.01075p. Investors have a day and a half to sell or buy shares in the company before the suspension takes effect.
UKOG is the parent company of the operator of the Horse Hill oil production site in Surrey. Planning permission for production and further drilling was quashed in June 2024 following a Supreme Court judgement that consent had been issued unlawfully.
Horse Hill oil production continued until October 2024, when UKOG announced a voluntary suspension.
Official data, reported by DrillOrDrop, showed 65m3 of oil was also produced at the site in November 2024. UKOG said the site needed a period of “minimum maintenance flow“.
The most recent data, for December 2024, recorded no oil production at Horse Hill.
Surrey County Council, which issued the unlawful planning permission, has instructed UKOG to clear the Horse Hill site.
DrillOrDrop reported earlier this week that nine months after the judgement, there has been no final date for site clearance.
UKOG’s only current source of revenue from UK onshore oil production is from its 10% share of the Horndean oil site in Hampshire. That site produced 905m3 (184 barrels/day) in December 2024 and 7,850m3 for the whole of 2024.
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