UK Oil & Gas PLC on Thursday said the High Court ruled that planning consent for its conventional gas and hydrogen feedstock project in Surrey, is entirely lawful.
UK Oil is a London-based exploration and production company focused on UK and Turkey. Its shares were up 8.9% to 0.061 pence each in London on Thursday afternoon.
UK Oil said that Loxley planning consent therefore remains in full force and the its plans to implement the project remain unchanged. The High Court hearing was held on June 8.
Surrey County Council previously refused permission for the proposal in December 2019, but following a public inquiry in 2021, planning inspectors recommended that an appeal against this decision should be allowed.
Housing minister Stuart Andrew later approved the plans for UK Oil & Gas to explore a site in Dunsfold in June 2022.
Campaigners from the group Protect Dunsfold and Waverley Borough Council brought legal action over a government decision to allow an exploratory oil and gas well to be dug near the village of Dunsfold in Surrey.
The site is located in the Surrey Hills, in an area of great landscape value, and sits on the border of an area of outstanding natural beauty. AONBs are places that have been designated for conservation.
After the government’s decision to allow the exploratory drilling, the area’s MP and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt called the move ‘bitterly disappointing and wrong both economically and environmentally’.
However, on Thursday, the company was given the go-ahead for the project.
UK Oil said that it has consistently stated that Loxley can play its part in the government’s Hydrogen & British Energy Security Strategies via the supply of its gas as feedstock for reformation into clean burning hydrogen. ‘Loxley’s hydrogen potential forms part of the company’s move into the hydrogen space along with its Dorset hydrogen storage and hydrogen battery project,’ it added.
Chief Executive Officer Stephen Sanderson said: ‘We are pleased that Mrs Justice Steyn has dismissed the legal challenge to our Loxley project and has confirmed that its planning consent is entirely lawful, as the Company and its counsel has maintained. We believe that a successful project will be beneficial to local and national level energy and economic interests and is fully in keeping with the government’s Hydrogen and Energy Security strategies.’
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