CAMPAIGNERS from the Waverley Against Drilling action group are battling a temporary exploration application by UK Oil and Gas (UKOG) for a five-acre Dunsfold site – Loxley-1 – which has just been submitted to Surrey County Council.

Local licence holder UKOG is currently seeking planning consent to extend its oil drilling operation at Horse Hill near Dorking, and campaigners fear that permission for the Dunsfold site could eventually see a well every two to four miles across the Weald.

Objectors have flagged up a March High Court ruling that national policy guidelines requiring councils to recognise the benfits of onshore oil and gas are unlawful, when calling on Surrey to resist the Dunsfold plan.

Campaigners are urging the county council to suspend the application, claiming it repeatedly refers to guidance now struck out, with the applicants stating the presumption in favour means ‘planning permission should be consented without delay’.

Rebutting concerns in an information leaflet for its pre-application February public consultation in Dunsfold, UKOG said the document was produced to “counteract the fiction being circulated by well known and ill informed scaremongers”.

Chief executive Stephen Sanderson stated: “We are not fracking. Our work uses only conventional oil field techniques as used in over 2,000 wells in the onshore UK and the three wells drilled in the Dunsfold area in the late 1980s.

“Our aim is to assess the commercial viability of the conventional gas and oil discovery made by these three 1980s wells.

“We are not polluting the area. Just like our other sites at Horse Hill and Broadford Bridge, Loxley-1 will be a zero-discharge site.

“We are not causing earthquakes. The British Geological Survey and the Government have concluded that seismic activity in Surrey is not as a result of low impact drilling and oil and gas extraction.”

UKOG added operations would not ‘industralise’ Surrey and Sussex and pledged to restore the site.

Mr Sanderson also denied UKOG’s plans would create HGV chaos in the area and said the company would share its profits with the community

He added: “Our activities are designed to increase the UK’s energy security by reducing the increasing dependence on long-distance oil imports from places that often have less rigorous safety and environmental standards than the UK.

“Even if all vehicles become electric by 2030, we’ll still need to import 300,000 to 400,000 barrels of oil per day without increased UK onshore oil production.”

Responding to the appication, XR Godalming spokesman ChrisNeill said: “It’s disappointing that UKOG is ignoring public opinion in Dunsfold and Surrey generally by pressing ahead with its application. “XR groups across the county are already campaigning alongside other pressure groups for Surrey County Council to refuse all oil drilling applications in the region.

“We need to make sure all projects of this type are stopped or we will end up with oil wells spread across the whole region.”

Chiddingfold and Dunsfold borough councillor John Gray said: “There is a lot of emotion about this. I have raised issues with Surrey County Council about the application, which does not appear to be very competent. I have concerns about its impact next to an area of outstanding natural beauty. The gas straddles Dunsfold and Chiddingfold so drilling could be extended.”