UK Oil
& Gas PLC
("UKOG"
or the "Company")
Horse
Hill Update
UK 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.
Consequently, 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.
In 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.
It 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.
This 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).
The Company has at all times
operated the field in full regulatory and legal
compliance.
The Company holds an effective
85.635% interest in Horse Hill and the surrounding PEDL137 licence.
Further updates will be issued in due course.
Stephen Sanderson UKOG's Chief
Executive commented;
"The Court's rather perplexing retrospective ruling, which is
counter to all prior judgements, further underscores why the
Company's focus over the past few years has shifted away from oil
and gas and firmly towards creating and delivering strategic
underground hydrogen storage, an essential element
of the UK's
future low carbon energy system.
These projects have the potential to create far greater
sustainable value for the Company and the UK than any small onshore
field such as Horse Hill. They also have the added benefit of
making a positive contribution to Net Zero.
However, although Horse Hill is a small part of our portfolio,
it still has a role to play in both the Company's and UK's future
transitional energy mix and thus we look forward to working closely
with the local planning authority to rectify this retrospective
change to EIA requirements."
For further information, please
contact:
UK
Oil & Gas Plc
Stephen Sanderson / Guzyal
Mukhametzhanova
Tel: 01483 941493
WH
Ireland Ltd (Nominated Adviser and
Broker)
James Joyce / James Bavister /
Andrew de Andrade
Tel: 020 7220 1666
Communications
Brian Alexander
Tel: 01483 941493
The
information contained within this announcement is deemed by the
Company to constitute inside information under the Market Abuse
Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014, as it forms part of UK domestic law
by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. Upon
publication of this announcement, this information is now
considered to be in the public domain.