Plans for gas production and a pipeline in a remote part of the North York Moors National Park would have significant effects on the environment, government officials have ruled.

A direction, made on behalf of the local government secretary, concluded that a planning application for the Ebberston South wellsite near Dalby Forest must include a detailed environmental impact assessment (EIA).

The ruling, issued last month, confirmed an earlier decision by the North York Moors National Park Authority, which had been challenged by companies behind the scheme.

The proposal, by Scarborough Energy Limited and Egdon Resources, seeks to use the existing Ebberston South wellsite to produce a forecast 7 billion cubic feet or 143,509 tonnes of gas from 2027-2032. Daily extraction has been estimated at more than 107,000 cubic meters, the companies said.

Combustion of the gas produced at Ebberston South would result in more than 430,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, the companies said.

The pipeline would be 1.53km long, with a working width – the land needed for construction – of 30m (98+ft).

Environmentally-sensitive

Government officials said the Ebberston South site was in an environmentally sensitive area.

The well pad is almost entirely in the national park and inside a buffer zone surrounding the darkest skies of the park’s International Dark Sky Reserve.

The site is close to the Tabular Hills regional walking trail and part of the pipeline route is directly on the trail, which links to the nationally-designated Cleveland Way. Dalby Forest is a well-used recreational area, from which the project would be visible in places.

The pad is 400m from the Troutsdale and Rosekirk Fens Site of Special Scientific Interest and within that SSSI’s impact zone.

It is also next to the Oxmoor Dikes schedule monument, a substantial earthwork dating from the bronze age. The nearest listed buildings are about half a mile from the site.

The secretary of state’s screening direction said the main impacts would be use of natural resources and emissions to air, with potential impacts on groundwater, transboundary climate emissions and cumulative highway impacts.

Details of proposal

The EIA screening documents have revealed some details about the Ebberston South plans.

If approved, the tallest structure on the site during gas production would be an enclosed ground flare measuring 8.25m (27ft).

No further drilling is planned. But a 40m workover rig would be used on site, for a maximum of two weeks, to complete the existing well for what it called long-term production.

Other equipment would include:

• equipment room and storage unit
• two compressors
• water storage tank
• high and low pressure knockout drums to remove liquid droplets from gas stream
• two activated carbon beds
• two dehydration units
• heat exchanger
• gas quality skid and meter to measure flow
• 24-tonne propane tank
• flow lines

The existing containment system to prevent ground and water pollution would be replaced with a new liner and protective geotextiles, the companies said.

Perimeter ditches would be cleared and a surface water management system installed in the north- west corner of the site, they said.

The proposed 1.53km pipeline would go through Dalby Forest to the national gas network pipeline. The route was designed to avoid a plantation, the companies said. Construction would mainly use horizontal directional drilling, except near Oxmoor Dikes.

Each day, an estimated 6.5 tonnes of propane (totalling 11,980 tonnes) would be added to the produced gas to meet export specifications, documents revealed. The total sales gas volume would be 155,488 tonnes.

Total forecast emissions from burning the gas (scope 3, category 11) from the site would be 433,837tCO2e

The companies had said these emissions were “unlikely to have significant environment effects”.

Background

The Ebberston South wellsite is in the licence area, PEDL120. Data from the industry regulator lists Ineos Upstream as the licence holder.

The screening request was made by the planning director of Egdon Resources, on behalf of Scarborough Energy Limited.

Egdon is owned by the Texas-based Heyco Group. Egdon is seeking permission to drill for gas at Foxholes and is a partner in plans for gas drilling and lower-volume fracking at Burniston, both in North Yorkshire.

Scarborough Energy Limited was incorporated in 2022 and has issued two sets of company accounts for 2023 and 2024. The Companies House details list just one officer, Ian Martin Bell, also a director of the engineering design companies, IMB Net Zero Ltd and Primus International Ltd

Ebberston South first got planning permission in 2007.

The Ebberston South 1 well, a deviated borehole, was spudded in February 2009, by Moorland Energy. The well was suspended after testing and evaluation.

Further planning permissions were granted in 2010 and 2012. Planning permission for five years of gas production was granted in 2012 after a planning inquiry but was never implemented.

In 2015, the site received a further permission for gas production, water reinjection, drilling of a second borehole for water production and re-injection, and construction of a 13.9km pipeline to the then Knapton generating station.