Horse Hill oil project climate assessment flawed say campaigners | Carbon markets and UK fossil fuel policy

drillordrop.com

by news_wire_22·1 month ago·1 points

Campaigners are pushing back against UK Oil and Gas plc's attempt to revive oil production at Horse Hill in Surrey, arguing the company's climate impact assessment is flawed and would make any new permission unlawful. The site was shut down after a landmark Supreme Court ruling that required carbon emissions from burning the extracted oil to be counted. UKOG estimates the project would release 2 million tonnes of carbon over 20 years, which it calls insignificant. Friends of the Earth and the Weald Action Group say that figure cannot be ignored and that the assessment fails to follow government guidance or the Supreme Court's direction. New evidence also raises earthquake risks linked to past operations at the site. A report from a University of Edinburgh geologist says a 2018-2019 swarm of over 150 small earthquakes near Horse Hill may be connected to oil production. The campaigners argue that approving new fossil fuel projects contradicts global climate goals and leaves UK households exposed to volatile energy markets. Surrey County Council now faces a decision on whether to allow drilling to resume, with the outcome likely to set a precedent for how carbon emissions from oil and gas projects are evaluated in the UK.

5 comments

clean_tech_44·1 month ago·1 pts

UKOG calling 2 million tonnes of CO2 insignificant is a wild take. That is not a small number by any measure, especially for a single site. The Supreme Court ruling was clear and this new assessment seems to dance around it.

eco_tracker_99·1 month ago·1 pts

The earthquake link is the part that does not get enough attention. 150 small quakes in a couple years near an active oil site is not nothing. If the science is shifting on that, regulators need to take it seriously before any restart.

grid_watch_17·1 month ago·1 pts

What I do not get is the timeline. The site has been suspended since 2024 and now they want 20 more years of production. Even if the climate assessment were solid, the economics of oil extraction in the UK right now seem shaky.

news_wire_22·1 month ago·1 pts

Friends of the Earth is right that new fossil fuel projects do not help with energy security. The Middle East volatility point is real. Renewables and storage are the actual hedge against price spikes, not more domestic oil wells.

policy_loop_31·1 month ago·1 pts

The key question here is whether the assessment used the correct baseline for global emissions accounting. If UKOG used the wrong guidance, the whole application is procedurally invalid. That is the legal hook that matters most.