Agenda item

The Committee considered a report where planning permission was sought by Angus Energy Weald Basin No.3 Limited for a sidetrack drilling operation from an existing borehole Well Site to enable a lateral borehole to be drilled up to 1500m to the south west at Saltfleetby B Well Site, Howdales, South Cockerington. The proposal sought to allow the applicant to access currently inaccessible reserves of natural gas within the existing gas field to ensure the longer term future of the Saltfleetby Well Sites. The proposed drilling operations would be temporary and production would be managed through the existing infrastructure and allow the development of the approved processing plant to permit direct supply of natural gas to the National Transmission System.

The Applications Manager guided members through the report and set out the main issues to be considered in the determination of the application.

The report recommended that, following consideration of the relevant development plan policies and the comments received through consultation and publicity, that conditional planning permission be granted.

George Lucan, CEO of Angus Energy Limited ("Angus"), was invited to address the Committee in his capacity as applicant for this proposal. This application was part of a larger project of restoring production at the field following the closure of Theddlethorpe refinery.  There were three parts; pipeline, process, and side-track. The pipeline, which bypassed the Theddlethorpe refinery, was 90 per cent complete and already approved by this Committee. He was proud to have spent approximately £500,000 locally on this work alone. The process facility, also approved by this Committee, replicates some of the facilities at Theddlethorpe in cleaning and compressing gas for National Grid. This would be completed this year, drawing on further expertise from the Humber basin. He expected 10 FTEs on the site as a consequence. The side-track accelerated production from the field at a time Angus would need the cash flow most in order to pursue their other net zero projects and was critical to the commercial success of the remainder of the project. Angus is committed towards the net zero energy transition and we welcomed the recent Energy white paper. The applicant's skills as drillers had prompted them to explore geothermal power as our means of contributing to the nations efforts in transitioning away from carbon intensive energy production.  If successful today, he expected to be able present a further pilot geothermal application to this Committee for the field itself, utilising existing wells on the field. In this part of Lincolnshire there was good heat at reasonable depth.  Angus was also energetically acquiring sites elsewhere in the UK and geothermal projects have genuinely occupied over 50 per cent of management time over the last year. However, deep geothermal was a pioneering technology and it would demand considerable upfront investment.  Without on-going revenues from careful husbandry of their existing fields, he would not be able to pursue these projects. This side track was truly important to their ability to fulfil the government’s aims as set out in the White Paper last year. In addition to the NG pipeline, they would install a second connection to the Uniper KIPS pipeline to the Killingholme Power Station on the Humber. This would bring this field directly within the ambit of the Humber net zero initiative including the consideration of hydrogen storage or carbon capture opportunities.  In that regard, for the final stretch of pipeline he had employed the first H2 tight pipe on a commercial grid connection in the UK. 3222

On a motion proposed by Councillor I G Fleetwood and seconded by Councillor T R Ashton, it was:

RESOLVED (Unanimous)

That conditional planning permission be approved.