UKOG submits Arreton oil discovery planning application to Isle of Wight council

AIM-listed UK Oil & Gas (UKOG) has filed a planning application with the Isle of Wight Council for the appraisal drilling and flow testing of the Arreton oil discovery.

Following a one-week statutory notice period, the application is expected to go ‘live’ on 27 March 2020.

The Application details the planned construction, operation and eventual decommissioning of a well site for the appraisal of hydrocarbons via a deviated borehole (Arreton-3 or ‘A-3’) plus a possible horizontal side-track off the ‘mother’ borehole (Arreton-3z or ‘A-3z’), all to be undertaken within a temporary period of three years.

UKOG has spent considerable time and undertaken much research to minimise the potential noise and visual impact of the site, which will be largely screened from public view.

The Company has chosen a site adjacent to land which already supports non-agricultural commercial uses. The land immediately to the east supports the Wight Farm Anaerobic Digestion Energy Power Station and to the west supports the Blackwater Quarry and ancillary operations connected to the working of aggregates.

As reported in the Company’s July 2018 AIM admission document, the Arreton conventional oil discovery, a geological analogue of the Company’s Horse Hill oil field (UKOG net 85.635%), contains three stacked Jurassic oil pools containing a third party (Xodus) calculated aggregate gross P50 oil in place of 127 million barrels (‘mmbbl’).

UKOG’s net share of associated mid case recoverable Contingent Resource volumes were stated by Xodus to be a material 14.9 mmbbl.

The A-3 well is envisaged to duplicate or ‘twin’ the A-1 and A-2 discovery wells drilled by BP and the Gas Council (now Spirit Energy) in 1952 and 1974, respectively. Should short term flow testing of A-3 indicate likely commercial viability, it is envisaged that an A-3z horizontal side-track would be drilled and put on extended well test to assess longer-term flow performance.

UKOG holds a 95% operated interest in Petroleum Exploration Development Licence 331, which extends over a 200 square kilometre area covering most of the southern half of the Isle of Wight.

Stephen Sanderson, UKOG’s Chief Executive, commented: ‘Whilst UKOG’s primary focus will remain on maintaining continued long-term stable and profitable oil production at Horse Hill, our efforts will also continue with those actions necessary to ensure that both the Arreton oil and Loxley gas appraisal projects move forwards as swiftly as the current UK situation permits.’

Source: Energy-pedia