LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Drilling at the Horse Hill development not far from Gatwick airport has been given the go-ahead by the Environment Agency but the six AIM companies backing the project still need long-awaited council planning approval, which could be decided next month.
Operator Horse Hill Developments (HHDL) has been granted permission by the agency to carry out extended flow tests at the Horse Hill-1 well in the Weald Basin, store any produced oil, drill and test both a side-track from the existing HH-1 well and a new Horse Hill-2 borehole.

HHDL, which owns 65% owner of the Horse Hill licenses PEDL 137 and PEDL 246, is 32.435%-owned by UK Oil & Gas Investments, with Regency Mines owning 3.1%, Solo Oil 10%, Primorus Investments 10%, Alba Mineral Resources 15% and Gunsynd 2.0%.

A planning application submitted by HHDL last October to Surrey County Council for long-term production testing and further appraisal drilling is now scheduled to be determined at the council's next planning committee meeting, on 18 October.

The consortium and HHDL had initially expected the application for appraisal testing and drilling would take "around 13 weeks", but earlier this year were anticipating the council's decision would be decided "in August or September".

Members of the planning committee completed a scheduled visit to the Horse Hill site on Thursday, 7 September, in preparation for the October meeting.

The Portland sandstone and Kimmeridge Limestone oil discoveries on the Horse Hill-1 site cover an area of 55 square miles of the Weald Basin and produce an average of 1,688 barrels of oil per day after oil flowed naturally from a first well in February last year.

If approved, the intention is to extend production testing of four zones to confirm the commerciality of the discovery, and to examine a previously untested area.

Email this article to a friend

or share it with one of these popular networks:

• DIGG
• FACEBOOK
• STUMBLEUPON
• MIXX
• YAHOO BUZZ
• DELICIOUS
• REDDIT
• NEWSVINE