UK Oil & Gas has retained its leases for the ‘Gatwick Gusher’, in southern England, which will enable the London-based company to continue production testing of the eagerly watched Horse Hill-1 oil discovery.
The Horse Hill partners, also encompassing UK Oil & Gas Investments and Solo Oil, have retained PEDL137 and PEDL246 lease areas for a further two years by the UK Oil and Gas Authority.
Horse Hill-1 has flowed 40 deg API of sweet crude at 1360 bopd from two bands of fractured Kimmeridgian Micrites at around 800-900m, spiking UKOG AIM-listed stock 77% to 1.95 Sterling as Schlumberger announced a revised upside of 9.2 bbl of oil in place for the in the Weald Basin discovery, which is close to Gatwick Airport.
The JV plans production testing of three Kimmeridge Limestone zones and the overlying Portland Sandstone, two further appraisal or development wells and 3D seismic.
The retention area covers a 88-km2. UKOG shares were trading at 1.35 at press time.
Stephen Sanderson, UKOG’s Executive Chairman, said of the latest developments:
“The conversion of the Horse Hill Licences to the new 14th round licence terms is particularly valuable to the company. We can now move our stated Portland and Kimmeridge Limestone appraisal and development programme forward over Horse Hill in the certainty that we can retain 100% of the entire 55 square mile licence without the necessity of any future relinquishments.
“Similarly, the Broadford Bridge PEDL234 extension now formally enables Kimmeridge Oil and Gas to drill the Broadford Bridge well and submit planning consents for a second well over the extension of the Godley Bridge Portland Gas discovery.
“Additionally, the extension of Baxters Copse gives us further time to assess the economic viability of the BC-1 Oolite oil discovery and fully assess any Kimmeridge Limestone potential.
These extensions, plus the recently announced Holmwood PEDL143 extension, give us a clear 2-year window in which to deliver commerciality at Horse Hill and demonstrate the repeatability of the HH-1 discovery results over the basin.”
