Wressle Q&A

What are you doing at the site?

We submitted our third planning application  to turn the site into a full production conventional oil well in July 2018 following previous refusals and appeals. We received an environmental permit (Mining Waste Permit) for the Wressle development in May 2017

This follows a number of exploratory and test operations in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

Proposed plans will include the addition of some extra environmental protection and production facilities on-site alongside a number of possible standard oil field operations to maximise flow potential at the site.

How many barrels of oil are there?

Testing indicated that there are three separate reservoirs – the Ashover Grit, the Wingfield Flags and the Penistone Flags formations that have oil and gas present. We are focusing on developing the Ashover Grit and we expect that we may be able to recover around 2 million barrels of oil

Are you going to be fracking for shale gas at the site?

The geology of the area does not include shale so we will not be fracking for shale gas or oil at the site either now or in the future.

The Wressle operation is a conventional oil well, similar to many others in the North Lincolnshire area.

How much extra traffic will this generate and how is this going to be managed?

This operation will be considerably smaller than work carried out on the site previously, however during certain operational phases there may be increased HGV movements. During the construction stage, for example, there would be around 50 HGVs over a three week period. When production begins, we expect a low number of HGV’s (typically 1 – 3 per day) will be needed to take oil from the site for processing.

To minimise the impact of these additional traffic movements, HGVs will only be able to move to and from the site during daytime hours. There is also an approved HGV route to the site which avoids heavily populated and built-up areas.

Will operations at the Wressle site be noisy?

We do not expect any noise impact on nearby properties. We received no complaints on noise impact during the drilling and testing in 2014 and 2015, and we will be undertaking noise monitoring during the operational phases to ensure that we do not breach any statutory noise thresholds.

Is lighting from the site going to disturb neighbours and cause light pollution?

Once production starts, there may be the need for 24hr operation for the first few weeks, so low-level lighting would be needed to ensure safety. However it is unlikely that this will be intrusive or will impact on local properties given the existing natural screening around the site.

During normal production operations the site would be manned during the daytime with lighting only required during winter months or when there is an urgent operational need.

How do you control air quality around the site and monitor pollution?

If gas does materialise and if there are sufficient volumes, we plan to use it to generate electricity and export back into the National Grid where possible, though a small flare will also be installed as a back-up.

We may need to use the flare to manage gas until we can connect to the electricity network, as this process can take some time. There will be a monitoring process in place to measure and quantify any emissions from the site and this process will have to be agreed and approved by the Environment Agency.

Will operations impact on the land and surrounding water sources?

As with all our operations, the Wressle site is built to high standards of environmental protection. An impermeable membrane is installed under the site surface to ensure the land beneath remains unaffected. In addition, containment ditches around the site are designed to contain run-off fluids and all oil is stored in secure storage tanks.

We will also be installing a number of groundwater monitoring boreholes on the site to sample and analysis groundwater quality both before and during our activities on-site.

A specialist surface water interceptor will be installed to prevent any flood risk and ensure that any discharged water is clean, and the local stream will be monitored for water quality.

Will operations at Wressle create jobs for local people and benefit the local economy?

Where possible, we strive to use local suppliers and the site will be manned by specialist contractors based nearby.

Our operations on site will hopefully also have a positive impact in terms of spending on local services such as hotels, restaurants and shops