Scarborough Fracking Plan to Proceed

Full plans for a gas drilling rig in Burniston will be submitted later this year despite local opposition, Europa Oil & Gas has confirmed.

The fossil fuels company has confirmed that it will seek planning permission for the gas drilling rig at Burniston Mill in Scarborough.

Europa’s CEO said the company would “listen to people’s concerns” after locals and politicians came out in opposition to the scheme, highlighting concerns about impacts on the local community and environment.

The ‘hydraulic fracking’ project could take up to 17 weeks and would establish whether gas in an underground reservoir at Burniston could be extracted for “commercially viable production”.

A decision would then be made on whether to apply for permission for extraction, which would require a new planning application, according to the company.

The proposed rig would feature a 30m (98ft) derrick and 1,050 HGV movements are expected to be generated throughout the operations.

William Holland, the CEO of Europa Oil & Gas has defended the plans and said he hoped that the possibility of new jobs and investment “would be attractive to the local community”

In an interview with the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), Mr Holland said that if plans are approved by North Yorkshire Council, the rig would be onsite for 45 days and that “no one’s going to notice” due to the “small volume” of the scheme.

However, last month North Yorkshire Council said that the company would also have to submit an environmental assessment after planners concluded that the proposed development “would have the potential for significant impact on the scenic value of the heritage coast and impact on the amenity of the local area”.

Scarborough and Whitby’s MP Alison Hume has said she is “deeply concerned” about the plan and that she will “support the local community in Burniston to stop this fracking application going any further”.

Alison Hume said the company was “seeking to get around” a legal moratorium on fracking and that she had written to the government to ask it to tighten legislation.

More than a hundred residents attended a meeting of Burniston Parish Council in July to “unanimously” oppose the plan and a Frack Free Scarborough campaign group has also been set up.

On Thursday, September 26, Europa will be organising a drop-in consultation session at Burniston and Cloughton Village Hall.

If the plans are approved, the company is hoping to start drilling by the start of 2026

Responding to the opposition and criticism from many locals, CEO Mr Holland, said:

“There are people all over the world who are against [oil and gas production] but in reality, the upstream industry has provided humanity as a whole with our ability to get to where we are at the moment.”

He added that because “domestic production is always going to be better than imported production” the proposed development was “an environmentally responsible thing to do”.

The current energy and net zero secretary, Ed Miliband MP, has previously said that “fracking is a dangerous, extreme idea”.

The government has also stated its intention to “ban fracking for good” with decisions by ministers to be announced “in due course”.

Mr Holland said he hoped to have “as many people as possible” attend the consultation session later this month.

The CEO added:

”I can say it with 100 per cent confidence… it’s not going to cause a problem.

“Hopefully we can show people that they’ve got nothing to be concerned about and there’s a reason why the ban does not include conventional hydraulic fracturing.”

In a letter sent out to local residents this week Europa oil and Gas said:

We have been looking for a suitable site for appraisal drilling to test the Cloughton gas field. The site needs to be within reach of the underground gas reservoir while minimising the impact on local people and wildlife.

We think that the site we have identified at Burniston Mill is suitable and we are keen to talk to residents to understand your concerns and address them in our planning process. We are in the process of preparing the layout and design of the site. We will be carrying out a number of surveys which will carefully consider existing levels of traffic, ecology and biodiversity, archaeology, noise, air quality, flood risk, surface water drainage, landscape and lighting. The site design will take into account the results of these surveys and include measures to mitigate the impacts, both during the construction and the drilling of the wellsite.

Any appraisal operations at Burniston are subject to planning permission by the mineral planning authority, North Yorkshire Council. We are intending to submit our planning application before the end of November. Our application will only seek permission for site construction, drilling and testing, and the restoration of the site. That work will tell us if the gas contained in the underground reservoir can be extracted at sufficient rates to make it commercially viable for production. If successful, any production phase would be subject to a separate planning application at a later stage.

We would like to invite you to a drop-in session where you can meet the team and find out more about the plans.

Where: Burniston and Cloughton Village Hall, High Street, YO13 OHJ

When: Anytime between 1pm and 6pm Thursday 26th September 2024

We hope to see you there but if you cannot make it to our event, you can: Find all the information at www.europaoil.com Email info@europaoil.com to request a copy of our brochure.

Your questions answered

Why drill for gas?

The new Labour government recognises that we will still require oil and gas until at least 2050 in order to make a smooth transition to renewables and meet our Net Zero commitments.

The UK is currently using twice as much gas than we are producing from the North Sea and onshore and we are importing half of the gas that we consume from abroad. This balance of domestic versus imported gas is forecast to worsen to 2050. This imported gas that we consume has significantly more greenhouse gas emissions associated with it than domestically produced gas. High levels of imports also make us more vulnerable to security of supply such as experienced following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

What about the climate crisis?

The UK will require gas for heating and cooking until at least 2050. Producing gas locally in the UK is much better for the environment as it displaces liquified natural gas imports, which would reduce global emissions.

Are you fracking?

Fracking, or high volume hydraulic fracturing is the process of removing gas from shale rocks and is currently banned in the UK. It is termed 'unconventional' because of how it differs from traditional methods.

However, low volume hydraulic fracturing operations, which have been used for many decades in the UK, were not included in the 2019 moratorium. They were deliberately excluded because these operations are well- established and proven to be safe, both from a health and safety and an environmental perspective. As such the legal basis under which the ban on high volume hydraulic fracturing was prosecuted does not apply. This is therefore not a "loophole" in the law relating to the 2019 moratorium.

The proposed drilling activities at Burniston include a conventional low volume hydraulic fracturing operation, which is called a proppant squeeze.

The proppant squeeze is a standard industry technique which is safe and non-polluting. It has been used on sites including Crosby Warren in Scunthorpe and Wressle at Broughton in North Lincolnshire.

What about impacts on the village?

We will be working hard to minimise any impacts such as traffic, views of the site, air quality, lighting and noise. The planning application will address a wide range of issues, all of which you will be able to comment on.

You can find out more about this at the event or online. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss your concerns and work with you to help mitigate them.

www.europaoil.com