A partner in the mothballed Waddock Cross oil site in Dorset gave details to shareholders this week of a proposed new well.

United Oil & Gas plc has a 26.5% interest in the field, about 15km west of Wytch Farm, the UK’s biggest onshore oil producer.

In annual accounts, the company said a new horizontal well at Waddock Cross, could target 500-800 barrels of oil per day (bopd).

If realised, this would represent 4-7% of UK onshore oil production or 0.09-0.14% of UK total oil production (based on the average for 2025).

There has been no formal oil production at Waddock Cross since October 2014, according to official data.

In the site’s 10 months of recorded formal production, it extracted an average of 6.2 bopd.

United Oil & Gas said it was in “continued discussions” with the site operator, Egdon Resources, to restart production at Waddock Cross.

Reservoir modelling had estimated 57 million barrels of stock tank oil-initially-in-place, a measure of oil extraction before the start of production. the company said. It said a new horizontal well could “ultimately result in the recovery of around 1mmbbls of oil” [1 million barrels of oil].

The horizontal well is one of three new boreholes proposed by Egdon Resources, which is also seeking permission for an additionnal 10 years of production.

A decision on the plans was deferred in September 2025 when Dorset councillors questioned the impact of carbon emissions from oil extracted at the site on climate change.

In February 2026, the government decided the Waddock Cross proposals needed an environmental impact assessment (EIA), a detailed environmental report.

Dorset Council had previously decided that an EIA was not needed. But the Weald Action Group, which campaigns against new oil and gas developments in southern England, asked the government to review the council’s ruling.

Egdon will now have to produce an environmental statement (ES) on the conclusions of the study.

ESs often run to hundreds of pages and several volumes, detailing the environmental consequences of a proposed development. For Waddock Cross, this would include the climate impact of burning any oil produced at the site.

The public is normally consulted on an ES and the document should be taken into account in a decision on planning permission.

United Oil & Gas said:

“Further planning permission and permitting application processes are continuing.”

It said it hoped the new well would “result in near-term, low-risk, low-cost, high-value production barrels for the benefit United [sic] and our shareholders”.

United announced today its AGM would be held at the offices of Blake Morgan LLP, 6 New Street Square, London, EC4A 3DJ at 11am on 7 August 2026.

• The Waddock Cross licence, PL090, United’s sole UK onshore interest, was extended for five years in 2024 until 31 March 2029 (DrillOrDrop report)