NOTE: The following is not a report of the meeting but intended to capture the principles of the questions asked and the salient points of issues discussed.
Apologies
Louise Price, Louise Hammond, Elizabeth Walsh, Coleen McG, Terry Howe.
Update on operations and proppant squeeze(PS)
Mark Abbott (MA) updated the meeting on the progress made on site. All works have gone according to plan so far. The well is free-flowing oil with minor gas and no water at present. There have been no issues or incidents. The team are experiencing some wax in the oil which is not unusual in this area but the hot weather will make this issue better as it tends to help it disperse.
Monitoring data for ground and surface water has been collated and issued on the community website for the public to view. Consent has been granted by the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) and the Environment Agency (EA) for the proppant squeeze operation.
Consent has also been granted for the storage of oil onsite. Once the proppant squeeze has been completed production will be 500 barrels per day and this consent means this can be stored on-site.
The community should expect to see a few more traffic movements after the proppant squeeze operation. Currently, it is one every two days and will be two or three a day after PS operation.
An array of geophones has been installed to pick up if there is any seismicity. If any seismicity is registered Egdon will immediately shut down the operation
Site visit
Martin Brooks(MB) Outlinedthat Egdon would be happy to host a site visit at the most appropriate time and would propose this is before the PS operation when there are less traffic movements. He asked if the CLGbe happy to do that and how many might attend.
MH–Said he would imagine there would be interest from the CLGand envisaged around 80% of members would want to come.MB–Committed to fixing dates and circulating for comments.MA–added that there will be other opportunities and we should maybe limit to 8 people for this site visiting terms of safety on site.
CarolRoss (CR) said that as she and Cllr Tattersfield had been on a site tour, she was happy to be removed to help with numbers. She reiterated that she is interested in the technical aspect and would like to see everything after the PS has been completed.
She also mentioned that she is now a NLC councillor and wanted to check that is ok to still sit on this group.
The group agreed there was no conflict in CR sitting on the CLG.
MB–told the group that post PS is the same as members would see if they visited now and it was just that there is more oil flowing. The fluid volumes are the only difference, the set-up is the same on-site. He added if people would prefer to wait until after the PS then that could be facilitated.
Martin Hempstock (MH) suggested an early date and if a second tour was required that could be facilitated.
PS site visit
MB–reminded the group that there had been a request for a CLG member to be present during the PS operation.He outlined that there was no problem from Egdon’s perspective but there is an issue of coordination. The PS takes2hours and timing will only be known the day before or on the morning of the operation. Depending on who wants to be present there will bea coordination for people to get onto the site at very short notice given they will require safety briefings etc.
MA–added that the site would be busier and operationally people need to be able to respond to what’s happening on site. Needs to be just one or two people who can arrive at the sit every quickly.
MH–said he felt like the Egdon team will have their hands full and will be busy doing the operation. Personally, he said he is not that interested in seeing that operation but will check with other members
Community Fund
MH–asked for an update on the charity funds charity he worked with was interested to find out more.
MA-End of Julythe fund should be up and running. Egdon will be looking for local people to help administer that fund. Egdonwill is hands-off ’but would want to know that the funds are being put to good use for the environment or youth areas or improvements for villages local the operation. The fund needs to have some well-respected and independent local people to act as trustees to manage the requests and agree on those uses of funds. Egdon to prepare some terms of reference.
MH–committed to try and get some local people involved as there area few charities interested. He asked about the size of the fund.MA said it will depend on how well the well performed. The fund will be a percentage of revenue without costs coming off. Could be around £30-50k per year.
Update–NYC
Andrew Law (AL) introduced himself and said planning conditions were dealt with prior to works commencing in site. He added that the council will visit the site if anybody alerts that any breach of planning but there has been nothing arising. There is nothing outstanding as far as planning is concerned
Update–Environment Agency
HowardGouldbourne (HG) told the group that they had conducted a May site visit and there were no issues with the site which is clean and tidy. Flarewasoperational and burning cleanly and all systems are in place and operating as they should.
He told the meeting that PS approval has been granted and there were some outstanding pre-operational conditions that he needs to assess and sign off on but that he has no issues and these will be done before work is undertaken
Questions arising
MH asked if the CLG could be informed after the PSoperationhas been completed.MB said that they would let the groups know by email and if there were any other questions please do contact Rachel Smith directly and we’ll deal with those.
Date of next meeting
The date for the next meeting was discussed.CR said that as information was coming through so readily from Egdon she saw no issue with waiting until after the site visit for the next meeting.
MH–asked when will Egdon know if the PS operation has been successful.
MA told the group Egdon would know during the operation if it has worked and within a week to know how it has worked. By mid-July therefore Egdon will be able to report if it has been successful and if the sidetrack is required. He suggested the end of July for another meeting
AOB
Wayne Gammon (WG)–thanked Egdon for their support of the litter picking group which is now137strong and growing. He said that he hoped the group could be a recipient of more funding going forward.
MA added the litter picking group is exactly the sort of charity which the fund will be established to support and that the company is happy to provide funding.
MH thanked attendees and closed the meeting
Link https://www.dropbox.com/s/tnbax6g40fx0u77/Meeting%20note%20Wressle%20CLG%201.6.21.pdf?dl=0
