Weald Basin Update

RNS Number : 0845X
Solo Oil Plc
26 August 2015
 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, 7:05 am                                                                                          26 August 2015

 

 

SOLO OIL PLC

("Solo" or the "Company")

 

Weald Basin Update

Solo notes with interest further resource estimates provided by UK Oil & Gas Investments PLC ("UKOG") which have been independently prepared by Schlumberger within the 55 square miles of the PEDL137 and PEDL246 Horse Hill licences ("the Licence Area") in the Weald Basin, located in the South East of England.  Solo has a net attributable interest of 6.5% in the Licence Area.

UKOG have stated that the tight Jurassic limestones and shales of the Kimmeridge Clay Formation in the Licence Area are calculated to contain a total oil in place ("OIP") of 8,262 million barrels, with the shales of the Oxford Clay and Lias Formations containing a further aggregate OIP of 2,731 million barrels.  A breakdown of Schlumberger's analysis by formation is given in Table 1.

Table 1: Licence Area mean OIP estimates, millions of barrels ("mmbbls")

Formation

Mean OIP (mmbbls)

Kimmeridge Clay

8,262

Oxford Clay

1,017

Lias

1,714

TOTAL

10,993

This analysis, conducted solely for UKOG, builds upon Schlumberger's previous petrophysical evaluation of the Horse Hill-1 well ("HH-1"), located in PEDL137 near to London Gatwick Airport, and announced on 5 June 2015.  Further independent work by Nutech was announced on 18 June 2015. The new report incorporates the analysis of a further nine wells located within or near to the Licence Area. In Schlumberger's previous HH-1 analysis a total mean OIP, excluding the Upper Portland sandstone oil discovery, of 255 million barrels of oil per square mile was calculated. The latest estimate is equivalent to approximately 200 million barrels per square mile on an average basis across the Licence Area.

It should be noted, as previously reported, that the HH-1 Upper Portland sandstone oil discovery is a geologically separate oil accumulation from, and additional to, the identified underlying Jurassic tight oil plays being reported on by Schlumberger. 

Neil Ritson, Solo's Chairman, commented:

"Whilst the new data from Schlumberger does not materially change the estimates previously released following work conducted by Nutech for UKOG and Solo, we are of course encouraged by the similarity of the resources estimated made by two independent groups using their own proprietary methodologies.  The prospective resources in the Jurassic could clearly be very substantial.  The upcoming flow test of the Portlandian discovery will also be important in establishing the viability of conventional reservoirs to produce commercially from the Horse Hill oil discovery."

Estimated OIP hydrocarbon volumes should not be construed as recoverable resources or reserves and also should not be construed in any way to reflect potential production of hydrocarbons from the formations evaluated.

Solo's interest in the Licence Area and Horse Hill:

The Licence Area, comprising licences PEDL137 and PEDL246, is located on the northern side of the Weald Basin of South East England near Gatwick Airport. The HH-1 discovery well is located in PEDL137.  Solo owns a 10% direct interest in Horse Hill Developments Ltd ("HHDL") a special purpose company that owns a 65% participating interest and is the operator of the Licence Area. The remaining 35% participating interest in the Licence Area is held by Magellan Petroleum Corporation.

Qualified Person's Statement:

The information contained in this announcement has been reviewed and approved by Neil Ritson, Chairman and Director for Solo Oil Plc who has over 38 years of relevant experience in the energy sector.  Mr. Ritson is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, an Active Member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and is a Fellow of the Geological Society of London.

For further information:

Solo Oil plc

Neil Ritson

Fergus Jenkins

+44 (0) 20 3794 9230

 

 

Beaumont Cornish Limited

Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker

Roland Cornish

+44 (0) 20 7628 3396

 

Shore Capital

Joint Broker

Pascal Keane

Jerry Keen (Corporate Broker)

 

Bell Pottinger                           

Public Relations

Henry Lerwill

 

Cassiopeia Services LLP

Investor Relations

Stefania Barbaglio

 

+44 (0) 20 7408 4090

 

 

 

 

 

+44 (0) 20 3772 2500

 

 

 

+44 (0) 79 4969 0338

 

Glossary:

discovery

a discovery is a petroleum accumulation for which one or several exploratory wells have established through testing, sampling and/or logging the existence of a significant quantity of potentially moveable hydrocarbons

electric logs

tools used within the wellbore to measure the rock and fluid properties of surrounding rock formations

flow test

a flow test or well test involves testing a well by flowing hydrocarbons to surface, typically through a test separator. Key measured parameters are oil and gas flow rates, downhole pressure and surface pressure. The overall objective is to identify the well's capacity to produce hydrocarbons at a commercial flow rate

limestone

a sedimentary rock predominantly composed of calcite (a crystalline mineral form of calcium carbonate) of organic, chemical or detrital origin. Minor amounts of dolomite, chert and clay are common in limestones. Chalk is a form of fine-grained limestone

mean

or expected value, is the probability-weighted average of all possible values and is a measure of the central tendency either of a probability distribution or of the random variable characterised by that distribution

oil in place

the quantity of oil or petroleum that is estimated to exist originally in naturally occurring accumulations before any extraction or production

petrophysics

the study of physical and chemical rock properties and their interactions with fluids utilising electric logs, physical rock and fluid measurements

play

a set of known or postulated oil and or gas accumulations sharing similar geologic, geographic, and temporal properties, such as source rock, migration pathways, timing, trapping mechanism, and hydrocarbon type

recoverable resources

those quantities of petroleum (oil in this case) estimated, as of a given date, to be potentially recoverable from known accumulations

reserves

those quantities of petroleum anticipated to be commercially recoverable by application of development projects to known accumulations from a given date forward under defined conditions; reserves must further satisfy four criteria: they must be discovered, recoverable, commercial and remaining (as of the evaluation date) based on the development project(s) applied; reserves are further categorized in accordance with the level of certainty associated with the estimates and may be sub-classified based on project maturity and/or characterised by development and production status

reservoir

a subsurface rock formation containing an individual natural accumulation of moveable petroleum

sandstone

a clastic sedimentary rock whose grains are predominantly sand-sized. The term is commonly used to imply consolidated sand or a rock made of predominantly quartz sand

shale

a laminated and fissile very fine-grained sedimentary rock, consisting of compacted silt and clay-size mineral particles. Can contain high proportions of organic material, which if subjected to heat and pressure over geological time can generate petroleum (a petroleum source rock)

tight oil play, or resource play

a play where oil is found or expected to be present within a reservoir with low permeability, i.e. a tight reservoir. The term, in the case of HH-1, is applied to a play where trapped petroleum accumulations are expected to be pervasive throughout a large area and that are not significantly affected by hydrodynamic influences (also called "continuous-type deposits").

 

 


This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
 
END
 
 
MSCPAMBTMBATTLA
UK 100