The Environment Agency has issued permit variations to Horse Hill
Developments Ltd (HHDL) for its operations at Horse Hill well
site.
These will allow the operator to:
- construct up to 4 new boreholes in addition to the 2
boreholes already constructed
- use 2 of the 6 boreholes as reinjection wells to support
production
- carry out well treatments such as an acid wash and solvent
treatments
- run 90-day well tests for each of the 4 additional wells
before they are either added as production wells at the site, or
abandoned
- undertake an injectivity test within one of the wells (HH-2z)
and any other wells as dictated by HHDL
- incinerate natural gas at a rate not exceeding 10 tonnes per
day during production operations. This to continue until it can
be demonstrated that the incineration of natural gas is no longer
considered Best Available Technique through a cost benefit
analysis.
An Environment Agency spokesperson said:
An environmental permit sets out stringent conditions that all
oil and gas sites must adhere to. We will not issue an
environmental permit for a site if we consider that activities
taking place will cause significant pollution to the environment
or harm to human health.
The decision to issue these permit variations follows our review
of comments received during the last period of public
consultation which closed on 31 March 2022.
When making permit decisions, we use information on the potential
environmental and human health impacts of the activity. In
deciding to issue these permit variations, the Environment Agency
considered all relevant considerations and legal requirements.
Further information,
including the consultation Decision Document.
Previous public consultations on the permit variations took place
in March 2022 and in March-April 2021.
For further information, please email KSLE@environment-agency.gov.uk.
Further information
These permit variations are issued subject to HHDL having all
other correct permissions in place from our regulatory partners
before they use it.
See further
details of the recent public consultation that closed on 31 March
2022.
For further information on how we determine applications, the
time scales involved and how we regulate Onshore Oil and Gas,
please see the following:
Public consultations
