Update - Broadford Bridge-1

RNS Number : 6560L

UK Oil & Gas Investments PLC

20 July 2017

 

20 July 2017

UK Oil & Gas Investments PLC

("UKOG" or the "Company")

Further Kimmeridge Oil Reservoir Zone Identified,

Broadford Bridge-1 Exploration Well, Weald Basin, UK

Highlights

·      Preliminary image log interpretations reveal a further, highly naturally-fractured Kimmeridge shale and limestone reservoir zone, designated "KL0", from 5,508-5,640 ft measured depth ("MD"). Fractures on image logs coincide with lost circulation zones, oil in mud and wet gas shows.

·      Gross possible Kimmeridge fractured oil-bearing zone increased by 132 ft to 1,622 ft MD, a true vertical section of around 1,200 ft; spans five entire naturally fractured Kimmeridge Limestone and shale zones (KL0-KL4) from 4,018-5,640 ft MD. Zone may extend further upwards into fractured zones above 3,800 ft MD.

·      Schlumberger electric logging and fracture imaging completed, cement plug in deeper Corallian sandstone set and 7-inch steel casing currently being run in the hole. Flow testing of multiple zones over an aggregate 900 ft total perforated section to commence following setting of remaining 7-inch steel casing to TD and well completion.

UK Oil & Gas Investments PLC (London AIM and ISDX: UKOG) announces that third party specialists at P-Ten (UK), and Premier Oilfield Laboratories ("POL"), USA, have examined image logs and 13 cores from its 100% owned Broadford Bridge-1 ("BB-1") exploration well located in licence PEDL234. They report extensive natural fracturing throughout the entire Kimmeridge section, including a previously unidentified potential oil bearing fracture-zone below the lowest Kimmeridge Limestone, KL1.  This new reservoir zone, designated as KL0, is intensely fractured and spans the interval 5,508-5,640 ft MD.  These results accord with drilling data, observed oil and wet gas shows and extend the gross possible vertical thickness of the Kimmeridge Continuous Oil Deposit to around 1,200 ft. Further fractured zones were recorded on image logs above KL4 between 3,800-4,018 ft MD.

The Company is currently mobilising equipment to perforate and flow test a total combined 900 ft of the Kimmeridge section, beginning with the deepest reservoir zones. Permissions from the Oil and Gas Authority, Environmental Authority and West Sussex County Council are in place, final consent from the Health and Safety Executive is expected in due course.

The flow test programme is specifically designed to gather further supportive evidence that the Kimmeridge contains a Continuous Oil Deposit containing mobile light oil and which can flow to surface at commercial rates and in commercial volumes. Further updates on flow testing, set to commence following completion of 7-inch casing and well completion, will be provided in due course.  

Schlumberger's comprehensive electric logging and fracture-imaging programme has now been successfully executed. This includes the first use in the Weald and Kimmeridge section of Schlumberger's Lithoscanner tool, used for elemental and total organic carbon analysis in shales and limestones.

Detailed log interpretations, calibrated to the 554 ft of BB-1 core data, are ongoing at COREX in Aberdeen, and at POL and Nutech in Houston, Texas. Further log interpretation updates and results will be announced in due course.

About BB-1

BB-1, an exploration step-out, is located south of Billingshurst, West Sussex, within the 300 km² PEDL234 licence, in which the Company has a 100% interest via its ownership of the licence's operator, Kimmeridge Oil & Gas Limited ("KOGL").

As previously reported, in the Company's opinion, the multiple positive indications of mobile light oil observed throughout the entire naturally fractured Kimmeridge KL0-KL4 limestone and shale target section is supportive that a significant Continuous Oil Deposit, with a vertical extent of around 1,200 feet has been demonstrated at BB-1. The uppermost two units of this zone, KL4 and KL3, flowed oil at a stable aggregate rate of 1,365 barrels per day in the HH-1 discovery near Gatwick Airport in 2016.

This Continuous Oil Deposit therefore likely underlies the entire PEDL234 licence and a significant area of the wider Weald Basin, including the Horse Hill-1 Kimmeridge oil discovery some 27 km to the north east. The Company has the largest licence holding in the Weald Basin and within the prospective area of the Kimmeridge play.

Stephen Sanderson, UKOG's Executive Chairman, commented:

"BB-1, UKOG's new flagship asset, continues to provide a stream of data and ground-breaking technical insights into what we believe is a new and potentially highly significant oil resource. This comprehensive and extensive data set is a sound investment into the future of BB-1 and our corporate goal to establish first Kimmeridge production by the end of 2018/early 2019.

With the technical data from drilling, core and logs continuing to provide mutually supportive evidence of "proof of geological concept", we will now move on very shortly, via a comprehensive extended flow testing programme, to test the concept that oil can flow to surface from the KL0-KL4 at commercial rates and volumes, the litmus test for any oil company.

Whilst there is always uncertainty in any new well and testing outcome, the technical results from BB-1 to date continue to remain both positive and most encouraging."

Qualified Person's Statement

Stephen Sanderson, UKOG's Executive Chairman, who has over 35 years of relevant experience in the oil industry, has approved the information contained in this announcement. Mr Sanderson is a Fellow of the Geological Society of London and is an active member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

For further information, please contact:

UK Oil & Gas Investments PLC

Stephen Sanderson / Kiran Morzaria                                     Tel: [phone] 

WH Ireland (Nominated Adviser and Broker)

James Joyce / James Bavister                                                   Tel: [phone]

Cenkos Securities PLC (Joint Broker)

Nick Tulloch / Neil McDonald                                                   Tel: [phone]

Square 1 Consulting (Public Relations)

Brian Alexander / David Bick                                                    Tel: [phone]

 Glossary:

casing	heavy gauge steel tubing designed to line the wall of a well. The casing provides a safe controlled space in which the drill pipe and bit can operate in isolation from conditions in overlying rock units. The steel tubing is bonded to the surrounding rock by impermeable concrete, known as "cement"
core or coring	a drilling technique that involves using a doughnut-shaped drilling bit to capture or "cut" a continuous cylinder-shaped core of undamaged in-situ rock. The core is captured in a steel pipe or "core barrel" above the bit. Core is normally cut in 30 feet lengths, or multiples of 30 feet, and normally with a diameter of 3.5 or 4 inches. Core is taken in petroleum reservoir rocks for detailed laboratory analyses of petrophysical and geomechanical parameters
continuous oil deposit or resource deposit	a petroleum accumulation that is pervasive throughout a large area, which is not significantly affected by hydrodynamic influences (i.e. the buoyancy of oil in water) and is not trapped by structural or stratigraphic geological conditions. The deposit, in contrast to conventional accumulations, has therefore not accumulated by the migration of petroleum over medium to long distances. The petroleum in such deposits is found within, or immediately adjacent or close to, the pore spaces where the petroleum is generated, i.e. those pore spaces lying within petroleum source rocks containing organic rich compounds (kerogen) that, when heated over geological time, transform into petroleum. These accumulations are generally associated with organic-rich shales such as the Kimmeridge Clay Formation. Such accumulations do not generally contain significant volumes of free, mobile formation water and therefore have no observable hydrocarbon-water contacts. The extent of the accumulation is generally defined by the limit of where burial depths have been sufficient to transform organic matter within the petroleum source rock unit into petroleum.
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 which measure the electrical properties of the rock and fluids in and surrounding the wellbore to determine the petrophysical and geological properties of the rock in its in-situ state. The logging equipment is lowered into the borehole on a steel cable through which a wire conveys data to be recorded at surface. The logging at BB-1 also includes tools which record 3-dimensional images and ultrasound scans of the rock designed to map and characterise natural fractures, know as " image logs"
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
lost circulation zone (LCZ)	a zone of highly porous and permeable rock or voids directly intersecting the wellbore into which drilling fluid can escape. Commonly LCZs occur in extensive open fracture networks, voids or vugs within limestones and highly porous and permeable sandstones
naturally fractured reservoir	a fractured reservoir contains open and usually connected cracks or fissures within the rock matrix; fractures can enhance permeability of rocks greatly by connecting pore-spaces together; naturally fractured reservoirs have been created over geological time by nature, not man-made via hydraulic fracturing
shale	a fissile rock that is formed by the consolidation of clay, mud, or silt particles, and that has a finely stratified or laminated structure. Certain shales, such as those of the Kimmeridge Clay, often contain a significant proportion of organic material, which when subject to increasing temperature and pressure over geological time transform into petroleum (known as petroleum "source rocks")
step-out well	a well specifically designed to determine the lateral extent of a discovered hydrocarbon accumulation or play
wet gas	natural gas, predominantly consisting of methane (C1), ethane (C2) and propane (C3) but also containing the longer molecular chain natural gases butane and iso-butane (C4), pentane and iso-pentane (C5). The C4 and C5 gases are created during oil-generation within a petroleum source rock unit when oil is thermally cracked. At Horse Hill these natural gases lie in solution within the oil in the KL3 and KL4 Kimmeridge Limestone reservoirs (i.e. solution or associated gas and not as a separate free-gas phase).

UKOG Licence Interests

The Company has interests in the following ten UK licences:

Asset	Licence	UKOG's Interest	Licence Holder	Operator	Area (km2)	Status
Avington 1	PEDL070	5%	UKOG (GB) Limited	IGas Energy Plc	18.3	Field in stable production
Baxters Copse 2	PEDL233	50%	UKOG Weald Limited	IGas Energy Plc	89.6	Appraisal/development well planned; licence extended to 2018
Broadford Bridge 3	PEDL234	100%	Kimmeridge Oil & Gas Limited 4	Kimmeridge Oil & Gas Limited 4	300.0	BB-1 drilling underway
Holmwood 3	PEDL143	30%	UKOG	Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc	91.8	Holmwood-1 exploration well planned in 2017
Horndean 1	PL211	10%	UKOG (GB) Limited	IGas Energy Plc	27.3	Field in stable production
Horse Hill 5	PEDL137	32.435%	Horse Hill Developments Ltd ⁶	Horse Hill Developments Ltd ⁶	99.3	Submitted planning application for long term production tests and drilling of two wells
Horse Hill 5	PEDL246	32.435%	Horse Hill Developments Ltd⁶	Horse Hill Developments Ltd ⁶	43.6	As above
Isle of Wight (Offshore) 3	P1916	100%	UKOG Solent Limited	UKOG Solent Limited	46.7	Preparing drilling planning submission
Isle of Wight (Onshore) 2, 3	PEDL331	65%	UKOG	TBA	200.0	Preparing drilling planning submission
Markwells Wood 2	PEDL126	100%	UKOG (GB) Limited	UKOG (GB) Limited	11.2	Submitted planning application for appraisal and field development

Notes:

1. Oil field currently in production.

2. Oil discovery pending development and/or appraisal drilling.

3. Exploration asset with drillable prospects and leads. Contains the extension of the Godley Bridge Portland gas discovery and the site of the forthcoming Broadford Bridge-1 well.

4. UKOG has a 100% interest in Kimmeridge Oil & Gas Limited, which has a 100% interest in PEDL234.

5. Oil discovery with recently completed flow testing.

6. UKOG has a direct 48% interest in HHDL, which has a 65% interest in PEDL137 and PEDL246.

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014.

 

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