UK Oil & Gas Investments PLC (LON:UKOG) has told investors that the a very large continuous oil deposit, totalling 1,490 feet, has now been measured in the Broadford Bridge well in southern England.
The deposit spans a number of sequences of the naturally fractured Kimmeridge oil play, at a depth of 4,018 to 5,508 feet.
Multiple examples of hydrocarbons have been observed during the Broadford Bridge-1 programme to date – including mobile oil in drilling mud, oil shows in drill-cuttings, and wet gas readings – and a flow testing programme is planned.
First, well services contractor Schlumberger will complete electric logging and fracture imaging.
The flow testing programme will be designed to establish whether or not oil can flow at commercial rates and in commercial quantities.
Stephen Sanderson, UKOG chief executive, has described the well findings to date as “ground breaking” and added that Broadford Bridge is now set to supplant its stake in Horse Hill as the company’s most significant asset.
“In the company's view, these highly positive and ground-breaking drilling results support our concept that a continuous oil deposit, some 1100 feet vertical thickness, underlies the BB-1 well location and the wider Weald Basin,” Sanderson said in a statement.
“UKOG as the largest licence holder in the prospective area of the Kimmeridge oil deposit is ideally positioned to take full advantage of this position.”
He added: “The major technical learning from BB-1 to date is that the Kimmeridge oil deposit now spans both fractured limestones and shales over almost the entire Kimmeridge section and that natural fracturing is more pervasive than expected.
“This bodes very well for the forthcoming flow test programme, which will commence following electric logging and well completion.
“The forthcoming extensive flow testing phase will now hopefully move us even further from proof of geological concept towards demonstrating that BB-1 itself is commercially viable."