MORE OIL IN THEM THERE HILLS?

Will the Brigg area ever by revisited by the large energy exploration companies?
Some 20 to 30 years ago there were several applications for licenses to survey the district, in the hope of finding oil or gas deposits.
And now their prices seem to be going through the roof, would it be worth having a second look at raw materials underground, and on our own doorstep?
For a number of years there was an oil well (with Nodding Donkey pumps) not far from Brigg’s Bigby High Road – on the road to Howsham.
Other wells have provided good returns outside Lincoln and Gainsborough.
So clearly Lincolnshire’s geology has the potential to save the country paying through the nose on the world market.
However it’s never as easy as it seems to the layman. Which is why, as Yellowbellies, we have massive deposits of iron ore and coal under our feet but it’s somehow economic to ship such raw materials from the other side of the world to Immingham and then transport them by rail to Scunthorpe (via Barnetby) and the power stations in Nottingham (via the Brigg line).
Only the other day the national press carried a story about an Indian steel giant, with British interests, buying its own ironstone mine in Brazil.
Meanwhile, Lincolnshire has lots of remaining ore in the Lincolnshire Wolds and north of Scunthorpe. Low grade – but surely a commodity worth bringing to the surface, rather than shipping higher quality stuff half way round the world.
To borrow a phrase from Pte Frazer on Dad’s Army: “Pure folly!”