The Horse Hill oil field in Surrey has been sold for £1 million, a fraction of the more than £25 million the former operator says it invested there, according to 16 September reports including The Guardian. UK Oil & Gas, renamed UK Energy Group, announced in June an agreement to sell an interest of about 85.64% to energy B, subject to approvals. The £1 million price does not mean extraction has been re-authorised.

Horse Hill, near Gatwick, has produced around 211,000 barrels to date. The project sat at the centre of the UK Supreme Court’s 2024 Finch judgment: environmental assessment must include emissions from later combustion of the extracted oil, not only on-site operations. The previous permission was quashed; a revised application has been lodged.

Horse Hill Developments Limited sought, in 2026, four new production wells, a larger site footprint and up to 20 years of extraction, plus processing plant. Surrey County Council said in early September that it still had no committee date and that work on the file continued. Filing an application is not approval.

energy B presents the purchase as part of a UK onshore portfolio. UK Energy Group is shifting towards salt-cavern storage and other projects after leaving onshore oil. Earlier UKOG accounts showed a very small book value for the Horse Hill interest after impairment — context for the £1 million price, not an independent reserves estimate.

Until a planning decision, long-term production remains an intention, not a fact. This article does not argue whether the project “should” be approved; it records the sale, the new application and the legal frame after Finch.

Photo: Tim Green, Flickr/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. Horley Green Lane, Surrey. Local landscape, not the Horse Hill well pad. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: Company behind failed Surrey oilfield project sells site at massive loss (The Guardian); “No date” yet for Horse Hill decision (DrillOrDrop).