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Class JA: Temporary petroleum exploration surveys
Part 17 Class JA allows a 28 consecutive day period for specific preparatory boreholes linked to potential petroleum exploration. The stated purposes are groundwater monitoring, seismic monitoring, or locating and appraising the condition of mines.
This is not a general right to drill exploratory oil or gas wells. It has strong location controls and advance notifications to water and environmental bodies.
England only. For other jurisdictions, see the Welsh GPDO or local legislation.
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Location and physical limits
No operations may take place within 50 metres of an occupied home, hospital or school, or in the protected landscapes and sites listed in JA.1. Drilling within a protected groundwater source area is excluded. Structures must stay within 15 metres, or 3 metres near an aerodrome, and boreholes for mine appraisal cannot exceed 160 metres depth. An explosive charge over 1 kilogram is excluded.
Advance notice and restoration
The Environment Agency and the relevant drinking water supply undertaker must receive written notice, with at least 28 days before development. The Coal Authority needs the same notification for mine appraisal boreholes. Works are restricted to 7 am to 6 pm, and restoration and sealing duties generally apply within 28 days after cessation unless the mineral planning authority agrees otherwise in writing.
Relevant legislation
Read the current GPDO Schedule 2 Part 17 text together with the general limits in Article 3. The statutory extract below provides the detailed class wording; check the consolidated text for any later changes.
Class JA: Temporary petroleum exploration surveys statutory wording
Class JA – temporary use of land etc in respect of petroleum exploration
Permitted development
JA. Development on any land during a period not exceeding 28 consecutive days consisting of the drilling of boreholes for the purposes of—
(a) carrying out groundwater monitoring;
(b) carrying out seismic monitoring; or
(c) locating and appraising the condition of mines,
which is preparatory to potential petroleum exploration, and the provision or assembly on that land or adjoining land of any structure required in connection with any of those drilling, monitoring or locating and appraising operations.
Development not permitted
JA.1. Development is not permitted by Class JA if—
(a) any operation would be carried out within 50 metres of any part of an occupied residential building or a building occupied as a hospital or school;
(b) any operation would be carried out within a National Park, an area of outstanding natural beauty, a site of archaeological interest, a site of special scientific interest or the Broads;
(c) any explosive charge of more than 1 kilogram would be used;
(d) any structure assembled or provided would exceed 15 metres in height, or, where the structure would be within 3 kilometres of the perimeter of an aerodrome, 3 metres in height;
(e) in the case of boreholes for locating and appraising the condition of mines, the borehole exceeds 160 metres in depth; or
(f) drilling would be carried out within a protected groundwater source area.
Conditions
JA.2. Development is permitted by Class JA subject to the following conditions—
(a) no operations are carried out between 6.00pm and 7.00am;
(b) no trees on the land are removed, felled, lopped or topped and no other thing is done on the land likely to harm or damage any trees, unless the mineral planning authority have so agreed in writing;
(c) within a period of 28 days from the cessation of operations unless the mineral planning authority have agreed otherwise in writing—
(i) any structure permitted by Class JA and any waste material arising from other development so permitted is removed from the land;
(ii) any borehole is adequately sealed;
(iii) the surface of the land on which any operations have been carried out is levelled and any topsoil replaced as the uppermost layer, and
(iv) the land is, so far as is practicable, restored to its condition before the development took place, including the carrying out of any necessary seeding and replanting;
(d) the developer notifies the Environment Agency and the relevant drinking water supply undertaker in writing of its intention to carry out the development (specifying the nature and location of the development), and no development takes place until 28 days after that notification; and
(e) in the case of boreholes for locating and appraising the condition of mines, the developer notifies the Coal Authority in writing of its intention to carry out the development (specifying the nature and location of the development), and no development takes place until 28 days after that notification.
Interpretation of Class JA
JA.3.—(1) For the purposes of Class JA, “protected groundwater source area” means any land at a depth of less than 1,200 metres beneath a relevant surface area.
(2) In paragraph (1), “relevant surface area” means any land at the surface that is—
(a) within 50 metres of a point at the surface at which water is abstracted from underground strata and which is used to supply water for domestic or food production purposes, or
(b) within or above a zone defined by a 50-day travel time for groundwater to reach a groundwater abstraction point that is used to supply water for domestic or food production purposes.
Page created: 16th August 2023
Page updated: 24th September 2026