Action over delays at mothballed oil site17 Apr 2025 06:10
Council officials have taken action against the operator and owner of a West Sussex dormant oil site over clean-up delays.
There has been no planning permission for the Broadford Bridge pad, near Billingshurst, for more than a year.
The operator, a subsidiary of UK Oil & Gas plc (UKOG), was ordered to plug and abandon the well and restore the site to farmland “as a matter of urgency”.
But it failed to meet its own deadline of November 2024.
DrillOrDrop has learned that both the operator, UKOG (234) Ltd, and the landowner have been served with planning contravention notices. This is a notice issued by a planning authority to investigate a potential breach of rules, before formal enforcement action is taken.
A West Sussex County Council spokesperson told us:
“West Sussex County Council is in ongoing discussions with the operator of the Broadford Bridge oil site regarding timeframes and progress towards restoration, following the expiration of planning permission over a year ago.
“Planning Contravention Notices were served on both the site operator and the landowner on 7 January 2025.
“The council will continue to monitor the situation closely and, if necessary, will take appropriate enforcement action to ensure the site is restored.
“We are committed to securing restoration and will act where needed to ensure this is achieved within a reasonable timeframe.”
Last month (March 2025), UKOG announced it had suspended trading because its annual accounts would not be published on time.
We asked UKOG what progress it had made in decommissioning the Broadford Bridge well and restoring the site. The company did not respond.
Broadford Bridge is the second site which UKOG has been ordered to clear. The Supreme Court quashed planning permission for the company’s Horse Hill site in Surrey in June 2024. There is still no final date when Horse Hill will be cleared.
Full story here;
https://drillordrop.com/2025/04/16/action-over-delays-at-mothballed-oil-site/