UK Oil & Gas shares were up 3.1% to 0.1p in early afternoon trading on Friday after the West Sussex County Council granted a two-year planning permission extension for the group’s Broadford Bridge-1z (BB-1z) Kimmeridge oil discovery.
The extension for the discovery, located in the company’s wholly owned licence PEDL234, reportedly passed with a majority vote of seven against two in favour of the motion.
UK Oil & Gas confirmed that the new date of the planning grant is scheduled to run out on 31 March 2024.
The energy firm commented that the additional two years would allow any information acquired from future Kimmeridge drilling at the company’s Loxley conventional gas and Horse Hill oil fields to be factored into the group’s upcoming Broadford Bridge plans.
The fossil fuels explorer also said it was still waiting for the final decision on its appeal against the Surrey County Council’s refused planning consent for the firm’s Loxley gas project.
The decision is currently under consideration by the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with the decision reportedly due on 7 June 2022.
Meanwhile, in line with UK Oil & Gas’ green energy plans, the extension is also set to allow conceptual plans for the supply of heat energy from the project to a potential large-scale greenhouse end-user which is scheduled for further development.
The early-stage concept reportedly includes use of the operation’s drilling pad to accommodate a series of new stand-alone deep geothermal wells.