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UKOG shares rise as Surrey County Council green lights new Horse Hill programme

Last updated: 13:47 18 Oct 2017 BST, First published: 13:26 18 Oct 2017 BST

onshore drilling operation
It follows approval from the Environment Agency last month

Surrey County Council has approved planning permission for a new programme of drilling at the Horse Hill oil field located in the vicinity of Gatwick airport.

A group of oil companies are now cleared to advance two new wells along with a long term testing programme which will determine the commercial merits of the discovery.

READ: Horse Hill follow ups Lidsey and Broadford Bridge have shown promise but there’s still a lot more to do

Specifically, the tests aim to follow up the prior Horse Hill well success which saw some 1,365 barrels of oil per day flow in aggregate from a number of hydrocarbon intervals.

The approval is a boon for the UK oil firms that are invested in the project -  including UK Oil & Gas Investments PLC (LON:UKOG, Solo Oil PLC (LON:SOLO) and Doriemus PLC (LON:DOR).

UKOG and Solo Oil shares each moved slightly higher immediately after Surrey County Council approved planning permission at a committee meeting (which was livestreamed by the council).

The listed oil firms are all invested in the Horse Hill Development Limited (HHDL) vehicle, which owns a 65% stake in the asset.

READ: Solo Oil: Horse Hill gets green-light from Environment Agency

Last month, the Environment Agency approved the proposed work programme and the project is subject to regulation from the UK Oil & Gas Authority. 

Horse Hill and other projects in the UK Weald basin, such as UKOG's Broadford Bridge project, is a naturally fractured oil play. The approved programmes do not include the use of hydraulic fracturing (commonly referred to as 'fracking').

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