Joy for Biscathorpe campaigners as oil-drilling well is decommissioned

For the well within the village of Biscathorpe that was targeted by oil and gas exploration and production giants Egdon Resources is set to be fully decommissioned.

This follows a decision by Egdon in December to withdraw its appeal against a decision by the High Court to block the proposal – only months before a full public inquiry was due to be held.

The company has announced work to plug the well with cement, remove the upper concrete rings of the well cellar and restore the surface.

Egdon, which insists it has “a strong focus on safety, environmental and social responsibility”, said it was planned to use a rig, about 30 metres high, to decommission the bore.

The work would only take place during the day and would not cause any disruption to the Biscathorpe community. The land would then be returned to agricultural use.

The news has been welcomed as music to the ears of the SOS Biscathorpe campaign group, which has been fighting for 11 years to prevent the oil-drilling.

Campaigner Amanda Suddaby told the BBC: “After so many years of opposing this development, we are thrilled that restoration work has been announced.

"This climate-wrecking eyesore should never have been allowed in a national landscape and in the midst of a climate crisis.

"We are watching every step until the site is fully restored to pristine farmland.”

When Egdon shelved its plans just before Christmas, it said it could “no longer justify its continued investment” in the scheme.

SOS Biscathorpe hailed it as a triumph within the over-arching war on climate change and fossil fuels.

Amanda said at the time: “We are relieved and delighted, and we are immensely grateful to everyone who has worked so hard for this outcome over the years.

"It is striking that Egdon withdrew just one week after receiving our expert-evidence, which clearly demonstrated that new oil-extraction is indefensible in a climate emergency.”

Egdon, which is wholly owned by Heyco Energy, a US company with interests in fracking, first submitted its planning application back in 2015. It persisted even when exploratory drilling in 2019 failed to locate any oil.

In 2021, Lincolnshire County Council refused the firm’s proposal for full-scale production. This followed uproar among locals in the Louth and Horncastle areas, who cited environmental, climate-change and net-zero concerns, as well as fears that the Biscathorpe landscape, including streams and fords, within a historic conservation area, would be severely scarred.

An appeal by Egdon led to the government’s Planning Inspectorate overturning the council’s decision. But then legal action by SOS Biscathorpe resulted in a successful challenge in the High Court.

The court ruling still failed to deter Egdon, which insisted the project was important for UK energy security.

It pieced together several revised versions of its scheme, prompting repeated rounds of public consultation and the calling of the public inquiry by the government.

SOS Biscathorpe commissioned energy and climate expert, Professor Kevin Anderson, to compile a report and provide expert evidence at the inquiry. Days after his report was submitted, Egdon decided to pull the plug on the whole project.

Mathilda Dennis, who farms near the site, said: “We should be protecting our climate and countryside, not sacrificing them for short-term, outdated fossil-duel schemes like this.

"Every tonne of greenhouse gas matters. Every new oil site takes us further from the future we need.

"This development would have done nothing for our energy security, but it risked destroying one of Lincolnshire’s most precious natural areas.”