Business
Horse Hill Update
Horse Hill Update.
About this update from Uk Oil & Gas Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\nUK Oil & Gas PLC\n(\"UKOG\" or the \"Company\")\n \nHorse Hill Update\nUK Oil & Gas PLC (London AIM: UKOG) notes today's Supreme Court (\"Court\") decision by a three to two majority, which found that in its 2019 grant of planning consent for the Company's oil production at Horse Hill, Surrey County Council (\"SCC\") did not request and consider in their assessment an estimate of the end-use carbon combustion emissions of produced hydrocarbons. The ruling now retrospectively requires that the end-use combustion emissions must be included in the development's Environmental Impact Assessment (\"EIA\") and assessed as part of the grant of planning consent for the development.\nConsequently, the Company now plans to work closely with SCC to promptly rectify the situation, either via an amendment to the original 2018 planning application's EIA or via a new retrospective planning submission, for which there is recent planning precedent within Surrey.\nIn the case of a retrospective planning solution, the field's historic and future expected production volumes would fall below the 500 tonnes/day (c. 3,700 barrels/day) production threshold for which an EIA is mandatory for petroleum extraction developments.\nIt should be noted that the original 2018 planning submission and 2019 consent were subject to the prevailing 2017 Planning Act EIA Regulations and precedents, which were interpreted by SCC to require consideration of only those emissions derived from the actual development. It being reasonably considered that any end-use derived emissions would be subject to other end-use emissions controls (e.g., at refineries or in vehicle use) which lie beyond the developer's control.\nThis position was upheld by numerous judges in prior hearings from 2020 to 2022, including England's two most senior planning judges, Lord Justices Holgate (2020) and Lindblom (2021) and the Court of Appeal (2022).\nThe Company has at all times operated the field in full regulatory and legal compliance.\nThe Company holds an effective 85.635% interest in Horse Hill and the surrounding PEDL137 licence. Further updates will be issued in due course.\nStephen Sanderson UKOG's Chief Executive commented;\n\"The Court's rather perplexing retrospective ruling, which is counter to all prior judgements, further underscores why the Company's focus over the p...