‘One of the largest remaining undrilled onshore UK oil prospects’ – Egdon Resources plc
From LincolnshireLive
Egdon Resources plans to drill for oil near the village after being given permission by Lincolnshire County Council. The village is a few miles outside Louth and is in the heart of the Wolds, one of 34 areas of outstanding natural beauty in England. Protesters have gathered at Biscathorpe to protest against oil drilling in an area of outstanding natural beauty.
It dates back to medieval times and has a church that originally dates back to the 1840s as well as an Old Vicarage. Now there are fears about the character of the area as the drillers prepare to move in.
More than 30 campaigners this week took to land off the B1225 High Street to protest against the drilling proposal. Fiona McKenna, one of those involved in the protest on Monday, December 17, said residents were raising awareness of the effect the site could have on the local area.
“We really must leave fossil fuels in the ground where they belong if we have any hope of tackling climate breakdown before it really is too late,” she said. “We do not believe that it is an option to be ignorant to facts and science or to choose short term gain over the long term survival of future generations on our planet.”
The protesters stopped traffic and talked to motorists about why they were there, with some people taking leaflets. Police arrived at the scene but no arrests were made during the peaceful protest.
Another protester, Geoff Jones, said: “Biscathorpe is a precious resource. We’ve had people going to the drill site three or four times a week. “It is an area of outstanding natural beauty.”
The group included teachers, mothers with children, local farm workers, a reverend, young professionals, tradespeople, artists and lecturers.
Frack-free Lincolnshire campaigner Elizabeth Williams said she was “appalled” at the decision by the county council to approve the proposal.
Egdon increases security at drill site
Since then, further approval has been given to Egdon to increase security at the site. It comes as the company has secured a further extension for a site in North Kelsey. The firm is also taking North Lincolnshire Council’s decision to reject a bid to drill in Wressle to appeal next year. Egdon said its proposal to the council “comprehensively addressed” any concerns that councillors had.
From Egdon Resources plc
Biscathorpe exploratory conventional oil well site
In March 2015 Egdon Resources U.K. Ltd, as operator of the licence area PEDL253, received temporary planning permission from Lincolnshire County Council to drill a conventional exploratory oil well on farmland to the west of the hamlet of Biscathorpe, approximately nine kilometres to the west of Louth in Lincolnshire.
The proposals will involve conventional drilling for oil and for clarity the operations at the site will not involve the process of hydraulic “fracking” for shale gas. This area of Lincolnshire does not have the specific rock-formation types that contain shale gas.
The proposed site replaces a previous site approximately one kilometre to the east for which we withdrew a temporary planning application in 2013 after listening to feedback from local people.
In July 2017 Egdon announced the issue by the Environment Agency of the environmental permits to enable the drilling and possible subsequent testing operations at the Biscathorpe site.
In May 2018 Egdon received an extension of temporary planning permission from Lincolnshire County Council until December 2020.
We have since been notified that LCC has been challenged by local activists as to the legality of their planning decision. Although at this time we do not expect this to impact the timing of our operations , we will keep this under review as the process unfolds.
During August 2018 we updated the tenders for all materials and services including the rig with completion of the site construction commencing during October 2018 and drilling operations expected in late 2018.
From Egdon: Biscathorpe Update – 6 December 2018
At today’s Egdon Resources plc (AIM:EDR) Annual General Meeting a new company presentation will be given (“AGM Presentation”) containing updates and further detail of the Biscathorpe-2 well.
Of note are:
- Following completion of site construction – expected in early December 2018 – we will mobilise a conductor rig to set surface casing (the conductor).
- We expect to mobilise the drilling rig immediately in early January 2019 with well completion expected in mid-February 2019.
- The AGM Presentation includes further details on the Biscathorpe Prospect including the estimated range of Prospective Resources, a cross section and a comparison with the geology of the Reepham field some 20km south west of Biscathorpe, just to the west of our Fiskerton Airfield producing oil field.
- At the Reepham oilfield, the Basal Westphalian sandstone reservoir thickens dramatically off a ‘structural high’ over a very short distance and a similar development of the target reservoir is expected at Biscathorpe-2.
- The chance of success for Biscathorpe-2 remains 40% and the range of Prospective Resources is tabulated below (as estimated by Egdon).
| Volumetric Input / Output | P90 | P50 | P10 | Mean |
| STOIIP (mmbo) | 7.52 | 29.50 | 142.00 | 56.00 |
| Prospective Resources (mmbo) | 1.84 | 7.30 | 35.30 | 14.00 |
| Net to Egdon 35.8% interest (mmbo) | 5.0 |
The AGM Presentation will be available from 11:30 am today on our website at http://www.egdon-resources.com/
Mark Abbott, Managing Director of Egdon Resources plc, said:
“We look forward to spudding the exciting and potentially significant Biscathorpe-2 well early in the new year into one of the largest remaining undrilled onshore UK oil prospects where stratigraphic trapping – if present – could lead to significant upside for oil resources.”
