RE: OILS COMING HOME6 Jul 2018 01:42
Concerns had been raised that test drilling at Horse Hill by energy firm UKOG had caused the tremors, but Mr Galloway said the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) had told the BGS no test drilling had taken place.
The BGS said the calculated epicentres for the earthquakes were about 4.5km (2.7 miles) from the Horse Hill well and scientists took the step of contacting OGA on 28 June.
An OGA spokesman said: "No flow testing operations are currently taking place at the Horse Hill drilling site."
UKOG's executive chairman, Stephen Sanderson, said there had been no subsurface activity at Horse Hill since March 2016.
He said: "We are currently preparing to conduct a flow test using a crane. No flow has yet taken place. We are not drilling and operations utilise a crane not a drill rig.
"We should stress that the work we are planning has the same seismic impact as any type of construction work requiring the use of such a crane."
Mr Sanderson added: "We would also like to point out that there was no recorded seismicity associated with our 2014 drilling and 2016 flow testing, nor are we aware that any of the other 80 plus wells drilled or flowed in the Weald are associated with any seismicity.
"Furthermore as the BGS have stated, the source of this seismicity is related to a deep-seated basement fault at around 5.5km below surface, 4.5km deeper than our activities at Horse Hill."