REG - UK Oil & Gas PLC - Horse Hill Update

UK Oil & GasAnnouncement

20/06/2024 10:30

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RNS Number : 2367T  UK Oil & Gas PLC  20 June 2024

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.

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