Brockham Shale Well: Fracking Trucks On Move In Surrey

The fracking threat in the South East is growing, with a new shale oil drilling attempt in Surrey. Angus Energy plans to a drill a well at its Brockham site near Dorking, targeting the Kimmeridge Clay shale layer. This is the same tight/shale oil formation targeted at Balcombe and Horse Hill.

Unlike Balcombe or Horse Hill, Brockham is already a small scale conventional production site and because of this Angus seem to be hoping that they can get away with more drilling without additional planning permission. Angus is also one of the first companies to receive a mining waste permit under new Environment Agency “standard rules”, which means no public consultation or disclosure of what the company is up to.

There is a significant threat that if the testing of the Kimmeridge Clay was successful Angus might try to start producing tight/shale oil as a test, without the need for any further planning permission. These developments are part of a plan to frack the Weald, coating a large part of Sussex and Surrey, in thousands of wells at typical densities of 4-8 wells per square mile. The companies presently involved do not have the billions needed for this however, and are currently involved in gathering data to facilitate such investment.

A camp has been setup outside the site and the local people are mobilising against the threat (see Brockham Community Protection Blockade). See Fracking The Weald: The Growing Tight Oil Threat for more information about the fracking industry’s plans in the Weald. See below for a video outlining the tight oil threat in this region.