6. Applying for your environmental permits
Pre-application advice for onshore oil and gas permits, forms to use, how to define your site, consultation and timings for your application.
You should contact the Environment Agency to have a pre-application meeting before you apply for a permit. They will help you get your applications right first time and get quicker decisions.
The Environment Agency can provide a limited amount of free, pre-application advice to help you complete your application. If you want more help, they offer an enhanced pre-application service. They charge £100 an hour plus VAT for the enhanced service.
You must apply to the relevant mineral planning authority (MPA) for planning permission to carry out onshore oil and gas activities.
Contact the Environment Agency for advice about your planning application before you apply for planning permission. This can help you avoid delays at the planning application stage.
The Environment Agency can help you identify any environmental issues that could affect your planning application. You can then develop solutions to address the issues and include these in your planning proposal.
If you need to produce an environmental impact assessment (EIA), the Environment Agency can advise you on what this needs to include.
Getting a preliminary opinion on your planning proposal is free of charge. If you need more detailed technical advice, the Environment Agency will charge an hourly rate. These standard terms and conditions provide more information about this service and what it costs.
Complete this pre-planning application enquiry form to get advice on your planning application.
When you contact the Environment Agency, you should tell them:
- the method of borehole construction you want to use
- the chemicals you want to use in all your activities, including drilling
- what secondary and tertiary containment measures you will use, including impermeable liners and bunding
- how you will protect surface water and groundwater
- if you will use well stimulation and how you will do it
- if you will use a flare
- if you will store crude oil, including gas condensate
For mining waste permits see Waste: environmental permits.
For installations permits see A1 installations: environmental permits.
These guides provide information about:
- the application process
- the forms you need to use
- other information you need to provide with your application
- other guidance you need to read, for example about risk assessments or management systems
Radioactive substances activity permit
You should contact your local Radioactive Waste Advisor who can help you with your application.
These guidance documents about radioactive substances activity permits and the application forms to use provide more information.
In particular you must read the documents:
- Radioactive Substances Regulation (RSR): Environmental principles
- Open sources and receipt, accumulation and disposal of radioactive waste on non-nuclear sites: how to comply with your EPR RSR environmental permit
Groundwater activity or water discharge activity permit
You can make your water discharge or groundwater activity part of your mining waste permit or installation permit application. This means you do not have to apply separately for a standalone water discharge or groundwater activity permit.
You must also read How to comply with your environmental permit. Additional guidance for gasification, liquefaction and refining sector installations, particularly section 2.2.5 about preventing emissions to surface water or groundwater.
For onshore oil and gas operations, your site is defined as the area above the ground covered by your operations. You must show this on the site plan you provide with your permit application.
For high volume (associated) hydraulic fracturing (as referred to in the Petroleum Act 1998), your site plan must show the extent of the underground extractive waste facility created by each hydraulically fractured well.
The Environment Agency may agree that activities carried out in two or more locations still represent one single site. If this is the case, you may be able to apply for one permit to cover a number of locations. To do this, you will need to meet these 3 requirements from Defra’s core guidance on environmental permitting.
1. Proximity
The different locations you operate from must be close to each other. You do not need to meet any specified distance criteria as the Environment Agency decides on a site by site basis.
2. Coherence
There must be a connection between the different locations, for example:
- they are all controlled by you (the operator)
- there may be infrastructure connections, such as a bespoke haul road or pipeline
- one location is dependent on the others for routine functions and operational integrity
3. Integrated management system
There must be an integrated management system that covers all locations.
If you want to apply for both standard rules permits and bespoke permits for a single site you should apply for them in stages.
You should apply for bespoke permits first as the time taken to process these (the determination period) is longer. The Environment Agency will need to consult on your application.
You should apply for standard rules permits as you are nearing the end of the determination period for your bespoke permits. Standard rules permit applications are simpler and can be processed more quickly.
However, if you are applying for the standard rules permit to store and handle crude oil (SR2015 no 2) and a bespoke permit, you should submit both applications together. This is because the Environment Agency consults on applications for this standard rules permit.
If you have applied for more than one bespoke permit, the Environment Agency will aim to:
- process (determine) all the permits together
- consult on the applications at the same time
If they agree to grant you your permits, they will aim to issue them all at the same time.
The process may get out of step if the Environment Agency needs more information about one of your permit applications, causing a delay to that application. If this happens, the Environment Agency will ask you if you still want to have them dealt with together.
Once the Environment Agency has the information they need to start assessing your application, they will contact you and tell you that your application is ‘duly made’. This means they are starting the determination process. They may still request more information if they need it to complete their assessment.
If you have applied for a bespoke permit the Environment Agency will consult the public on your application.
The Environment Agency will publish online a notice of your application and instructions for how other people can see and comment on it.
Members of the public and anyone interested in the application have 20 working days to comment.
The Environment Agency may also consult other public bodies, for example:
- the local MPA
- Public Health England
- Health and Safety Executive
- Natural England
- water companies
Sites of high public interest
If the Environment Agency considers your application to be of high public interest, they may carry out an enhanced public consultation process.
If your operations involve high volume hydraulic fracturing, it is highly likely that your application will be treated as a site of high public interest.
It can take longer to determine a permit for a site of high public interest. The length of time this takes can be affected by:
- the quality of your permit application
- the extent to which you have engaged with the local community before applying
The Environment Agency may also:
- extend the time allowed for public consultation on your application
- advertise the application more widely or hold drop-in sessions
If the Environment Agency decides that, in principle, they will grant your permit they may carry out a second consultation on the draft decision. This is known as a ‘minded to’ consultation.
The Environment Agency’s public participation statement explains how and why they will consult on permit applications.