Mohamed Al Fayed has been given leave to appeal a decision that overturned a High court order that the Harrods tycoon received almost £750,000 in damages for trespass into oil reserves beneath his Surrey mansion.
In June Court of Appeal judges Jacob, Aikens and Sullivan LJJ overturned Peter Smith J’s order for Star Energy to pay the compensation after it drilled diagonally under Barrow Green Court, Al Fayed’s country estate in Oxted, Surrey.
Between 1990 and 2007, approximately 1.006m barrels of oil were extracted from wells that penetrated almost 1km beneath the estate, which sits on part of the Palmers Wood oilfield and is owned by Al Fayed’s company Bocardo SA.
Allowing Al Fayed’s claim in July 2008, Peter Smith J said: “I do not see how, in the present case, the insertion of pipelines under the Oxted estate for the purpose of removing the oil both beneath the estate and in the remainder of the field can be anything other than a trespass.”
Accordingly, the judge awarded Al Fayed 9% of Star Energy’s income from the wells, which amounted, since 2000, to approximately £7m, and the same percentage of future income.
However, allowing Star Energy’s appeal against that decision, Aikens LJ held that although Al Fayed owned the strata beneath the estate, he did not own the petroleum found in those strata.
Accordingly, the damages for Star Energy’s trespass, and in lieu of an injunction for future trespass, were assessed at £1,000.
Today the High Court gave Al Fayed leave to appeal the decision.
