Cloughton – delivering local energy safely

Welcome to the Burniston community website where you’ll find information about the Cloughton gas development project, Europa’s application to drill at the Burniston Mill site in Scarborough, and how the project partners intend to work with local communities.


Planning application

In February 2025, Europa submitted a planning application for appraisal drilling to the North Yorkshire Council.

Europa’s Cloughton project application at Burniston Mill is only seeking permission for site construction, drilling, testing, and the subsequent restoration of the site and agricultural land to its former condition.

The appraisal drilling will enable the project partners to know if the gas contained in the underground reservoir can be extracted at sufficient rates to make it commercially viable for production. If the appraisal is successful, any production phase would be subject to a separate planning application at a later stage.

Location plan

Work at the Cloughton project is expected to take around nine months and will be split into four phases, however the drilling rig is only anticipated to be on site for 50 days.

Site layout

Proposed Cloughton project wellbore

Europa’s plans for appraisal drilling in Burniston

This application is for construction of the wellpad, appraisal drilling and site restoration only. The application covers the following activities:

(596kb PDF)

Phase 1

Site construction

Around 7 weeks

Phase 2

Drilling operations

7 weeks

Phase 3

Well analysis and completion design followed by 1-2 days of proppant squeeze and flow testing

Up to 17 weeks

Phase 4

Well decommissioning, site restoration and aftercare

6 weeks