UK Oil & Gas announces that the Environment Agency ("EA") has granted UKOG's 85.635% owned Horse Hill oil field a full Production Permit ("PP"). The  PP enables production and water re-injection operations, incineration of waste gas, maintenance/workovers and the drilling of further development wells. To date, production at Horse Hill has operated under the umbrella of prior testing consents which excluded any ability to reinject produced saline formation water.

UKOG can now proceed ahead with its plans to convert Horse Hill-2z into a water injector during 2022, which, if implemented, would remove the need for costly transportation and disposal of produced saline formation water at remote third-party sites. The initial application for the PP was submitted to the EA 31 months ago on 24 September 2019. 

Following the PP grant a review of the viability of reinstating Kimmeridge production and further new Portland infill drilling locations are now under way.

Stephen Sanderson UKOG's CEO commented:
"This long-awaited EA permit finally enables UKOG to return Horse Hill's produced saline formation water back to the oil-bearing Portland rocks where it originated, lowering operating costs per barrel, removing HGV tankers from congested roads and reducing the field's overall carbon footprint. The ability to reinject makes both environmental and economic good sense."

The Horse Hill Portland and Kimmeridge oil field is operated by UKOG's subsidiary company Horse Hill Developments Ltd ("HHDL"), in which UKOG has a direct 77.9% interest. HHDL has a 65% interest in the field and surrounding PEDL137 and PEDL246 licences, with the remaining 35% interest held by UKOG's wholly owned subsidiary, UKOG (137/246) Ltd.

KeyFacts Energy: UK Oil & Gas UK country profile