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The search for onshore oil and gas in Britain has had an erratic pattern of historical development but since the discovery of the Wytch Farm field in Dorset, during 1973, the industry has undergone a marked revival. Over the past ten years one of the highest levels of exploration ever experienced has been achieved and this has raised a number of interesting new questions in relation to planning for these developments. One of the main problems is that although the drilling of an exploratory borehole requires planning permission the work itself is only a temporary operation and on the basis of this argument permission has been sought to drill wells on land of high amenity or ecological value. However, a successful exploratory borehole can lead to a planning application for the installation of more permanent production facilities and this can lead to something of a dilemma for planners as to where exploratory drilling should be permitted. This research aimed to investigate the onshore hydrocarbons industry and determine what were the impacts of and the issues raised by this new phase of activity. The work was given an exciting new dimension when a public inquiry was called to investigate Shell UK's planning application to sink an exploratory borehole in the New Forest. The proceedings of the Inquiry were followed and the evidence presented was used to help determine the important issues. A series of detailed interviews were then undertaken to illuminate the problems from the viewpoint of both the industry and the planners. Mineral Planning Officers and Oil Company Officials answered similar questions and related these to their own individual experiences of onshore hydrocarbons operations. The research concluded that although the industry raised a number of problems the use of effective planning control at both central and local levels could overcome most of these. A series of recommendations were made.

The displacement of oil from a consolidated sandstone core has been investigated using microemulsion slugs located in a single phase region. Phase diagram was prepared at the salinity lower than the optimum salinity of the system. Formation of an oil bank and resulting fractional flow of oil was dependent upon the oil content and size of the microemulsion slug. For a low salinity polymer buffer, the sulfonate adsorption was low but no increase in oil recovery was obtained. Breakthrough of the oil bank occured at 0.135 to 0.25 injected pore volumes which was followed by a white macroemulsion. The displacement process has been discribed qualitatively on the basis of analysis of the produced fluids. Screening criteria based on solubilisation parameters and fluid viscosity measurements were found to be adequate for the selection of surfactant and alcohol. Polyacrylamide was found to be inadequate. A polysachharide polymer provided adequate mobility control acheiving a higher effective viscosity in consolidated core than that calculated from simplified models. The capillary number concept was investigated over a wide range of velocity, viscosity and interfacial tension. Release of oil at the onset of mobilisation was governed by the interfacial forces and by viscous forces at ultralow interfacial tension. Dispersion in single phase flow through sandpacks and consolidated core were carried out for both saturated and partially saturated condition. Surfactant, sucrose and tritiated water were employed as dispersion tracers. Longitudinal dispersion coefficient, D1, increased with increasing sandpack permeability but was independent of sulfonate and alcohol concentration, salinity gradient, interfacial tension, sulfonate solubility and for a limited range of favourable viscosity ratio. increased with increasing immobile oil saturation in sandpacks but there was no effect in the consolidated core. The breakthrough curves for sandpacks showed good agreement with the prediction of a convective-diffusion model while the consolidated core exhibited a slight capacitance effect. Convective-diffusion and capacitance models were solved numerically using a Crank-Nicholson finite difference technique with different boundary conditions. The former exhibited a small measure of sensitivity with respect to boundary conditions used but the latter was fairly insensitive to change in boundary conditions.

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This thesis examines the development of UK oil policy since 1964. The methodology of neo-classical economic theory is applied to the government policy process and various distortions and inconsistencies in the process are found. The economic theories of politics and of bureaucracies highlight the intrinsic deficiencies of the oil policy process and provide the analytical framework in which a positive assessment of government oil policy is undertaken. Tactical behaviour and strategic bargaining on the basis of the characteristics of oil policy are methods by which groups and individuals attempt to influence the development of policy. It is possible to predict the direction and degree of influence various groups have on the oil policy process over time and to estimate the economic consequences of government action in the North Sea. The thesis emphasises the inevitability of distorting pressures on the government policy process in the system of democratic government in the UK. Recommendations of ways to reduce the distorting impact of government policies in the domestic oil sector include providing greater access to information than already exists and promoting competition between government bureaucracies for the provision of goods and services provided by government.

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