Cloughton 2 gas permit consultation opens in Yorkshire

Cloughton 2 is one of those cases where the paperwork matters almost as much as the drilling. On Monday 3 August 2026, the Environment Agency opened a six-week consultation on its draft decision to grant an environmental permit for a temporary exploration wellsite near Burniston in North Yorkshire. The site is known as Cloughton 2, and the consultation is due to close on 23 September 2026. (gov.uk) According to the Environment Agency, the application comes from Europa Oil and Gas Limited. The company wants permission for a temporary site so it can drill a test borehole and find out whether conventional gas can be extracted there. That means this stage is about exploration and testing, not a final green light for full long-term production. (gov.uk)

The company’s own non-technical summary helps translate the proposal into plain English. It sets out four broad phases: building the site, drilling the borehole, testing the well if gas is found, and then restoring the land. It also says that if gas is not encountered during drilling, the borehole would be decommissioned and the site restored rather than moved straight into testing. (consult.environment-agency.gov.uk) That timeline matters because it shows what residents are really being asked to consider now. This is a permit application tied to a specific, temporary exploration wellsite and a defined set of regulated activities, not an open-ended licence to do anything the operator wants in future. (consult.environment-agency.gov.uk)

One phrase you may keep seeing in the papers is **proppant squeeze**. In simple terms, it is a way of trying to help gas move more freely through rock close to the well. The Environment Agency says the method would involve pushing a gelled water-based fluid and sand into the well under pressure to open small cracks in the rock. Europa’s non-technical summary says the operation would use about 300 to 500 cubic metres of carrier fluid, mostly water, together with proppant. (gov.uk) If that sounds familiar, there is a reason. The Environment Agency says the technique uses similar principles to hydraulic fracturing, but it is not the same as the shale gas hydraulic fracturing covered by the government’s current suspension. That distinction is likely to be one of the first things many readers want clarified, because similar-sounding methods can sit in different legal categories. (gov.uk)

The part that can feel most confusing is this: North Yorkshire Council refused planning permission for the proposal in May 2026, yet the permit process is still moving. The Environment Agency’s explanation is that planning permission and environmental permitting are separate legal processes with different tests. In other words, one public body can say no under planning law while another still has to examine whether the environmental permit meets the rules it is responsible for. (gov.uk) **What this means:** if you opposed the scheme at planning stage, that does not automatically settle the permit stage. The council decides whether the development should be allowed in planning terms; the Environment Agency must decide whether the regulated activities meet environmental law and can be carried out without unacceptable harm to people or the environment. That split can be frustrating, but it is the legal structure the regulators are working within. (gov.uk)

For anyone thinking of responding, the Citizen Space consultation page gives a useful guide to what counts. It says the Environment Agency can consider environmental rules and technical standards, information about local people and sensitive sites, whether the right process is being used for the activity, the shape and use of surrounding land in terms of environmental impact, and on-site noise or odour from traffic. It can also consider new information about monitoring or pollution controls. (consult.environment-agency.gov.uk) Just as important is what it says it cannot consider. The consultation page says questions about whether the site is in the right place as a land-use matter belong to planning, not permitting. It also says the agency cannot decide whether gas development should happen in principle. **What this means:** comments are likely to be strongest when they point to groundwater risk, waste handling, air, noise, odour, monitoring, or missing technical evidence rather than broad objections alone. That last point is an inference from the agency’s own guidance on what falls inside its remit. (consult.environment-agency.gov.uk)

The Environment Agency says this draft decision comes after specialist officers carried out a detailed technical assessment. In the government press notice, it says officers considered the operator’s application, supporting technical material and the responses received during the first public consultation before reaching this draft position. Ian Foster, the agency’s area manager for Yorkshire, said the process is evidence-based and invited people to read the consultation documents before commenting. (gov.uk) There is also a process point here that is easy to miss. Official Environment Agency guidance for onshore oil and gas says bespoke permit applications are publicly consulted on, and where the agency is minded to grant a permit it may run a second consultation on the draft decision. That helps explain why Cloughton 2 has moved into another consultation phase rather than straight to a final yes or no. (gov.uk)

The documents also show the sort of controls the operator says would be used on site. Europa’s non-technical summary says the active working area would sit on hardstanding above a fully welded environmental membrane, with a perimeter containment ditch designed to keep accidental spillages within the site. The same summary says specialist risk work has been prepared on air, groundwater, surface water and noise for the permit process. (consult.environment-agency.gov.uk) That does not mean concerns disappear; it tells you where the technical argument now sits. A consultation like this is the moment for residents, campaigners and other readers to test whether those safeguards are convincing, whether the monitoring is enough, and whether any assumptions in the application look too weak. The Environment Agency says all relevant responses will be considered before it makes its final determination. (gov.uk)

The consultation has been given a longer window because it falls during the summer holidays, with the Environment Agency saying that extra time should help people read the material and respond. Comments can be submitted online until 23 September 2026, and the agency says people who cannot access the documents online can contact it by telephone on 03708 506 506. (gov.uk) For local residents, the practical lesson is simple. If you want your voice to count at this stage, focus on the permit questions the regulator is actually allowed to answer. Cloughton 2 is not just a story about gas; it is also a lesson in how planning law and environmental permitting can run side by side, even when the public may expect one decision to settle everything. (gov.uk)