Fayed loses fight for share of spoils from oilfield under Surrey estate

MOHAMED al-Fayed's hopes of a stake in the income from an oilfield under his Surrey estate finally dried up at the Supreme Court yesterday.

The High Court in 2008 awarded the multimillionaire former owner of Harrods 9 per cent of proceeds from the tiny field since 2000 and the same percentage of future income.

But the 621,180 immediate award was cut to 1,000 by the Court of Appeal after a ruling he was not entitled to a percentage of the income but just compensation, as the boreholes were drilled diagonally under his land.

Mr Fayed took his claim to the highest court in the land and the company exploiting the wells at Oxted, Surrey, appealed over findings they had trespassed on the estate. Yesterday, five justices of the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the finding of trespass but, by a majority, threw out the appeal on damages.

High Court judge Mr Justice Peter Smith found for Mr Fayed after hearing that Star Energy, which owned rights to bore at the Palmers Wood oilfield, did not tell him what was happening beneath his Barrow Green Court and Barrow Green Farm.

The oil companies had made millions pumping oil from under his land for 17 years, it was claimed.

The Court of Appeal ruled that, although Mr Fayed owned the strata beneath his land, he did not own the oil. Production at the site began in October 1990. By the end of 2007, more than a million barrels, worth 10 million, had been extracted.