www.wessexexploration.com
Wessex Exploration plc (Wessex) was formed to explore the Wessex and Weald Basins of southern England at a time when the prolific Sherwood Sandstone reservoir had just been discovered in the giant Wytch Farm oil field and smaller oil and gas discoveries were being made in the Weald Basin. Wessex completed a regional geological study of these basins and concluded that the complexity of the stratigraphy, structure and geological history of the basins required a careful, disciplined and highly technical approach to hydrocarbon exploration and that additional significant hydrocarbon potential remained in place.
Wessex Exploration and partner provisionally awarded blocks close to Wytch Farm
Wessex Exploration (LON:WSX) and its Australian partner Norwest Energy have been provisionally awarded five oil exploration blocks in the English Channel.
Although the Channel is not noted for being prolific in hydrocarbons, the licence areas lie to the east and south-east of Wytch Farm in Dorset, Britain’s largest onshore oil field.
The acreage is believed to contain at least six different structural leads with a geological chance of success ranging from 15 per cent to 32 per cent.
Mirrabooka, a subsidiary of Norwest Energy, will hold a 35 per cent equity interest and a 65 per cent working interest in the blocks. It will also be the operator.
Wessex managing director Frederik Dekker said: "Wessex is very pleased with the offer of this highly prospective acreage and we have every intention with the support of our partner Nortwest Energy Mirrabooka to bring at least one of the leads to a drillable status as soon as possible."
The pair already hold two onshore petroleum exploration and development licences close to Wytch Farm, part of the Wessex basin, which has produced over 400 million barrels of oil to date.
The field was discovered by the nationalised British Gas in 1973 and began producing oil six years later.
As part of the privatisation of British Gas in the 1980s Wytch Farm was sold to BP, which took over as operator in 1984. In May last year BP sold its interest in Wytch Farm to Perenco.
The field is located in a faulted block of Jurassic and older rocks beneath the Hampshire Basin, close to the steeply sloping fold in the overlying chalk called a monocline.
The Purbeck Monocline defines the field’s southern limit. It consists of three separate reservoirs known as Bridport, Sherwood and Frome.
Bridport, the first discovery, is in the Jurassic Bridport Sands 900 metres below Poole Harbour.
The much larger Sherwood reservoir - discovered in 1978 - is below this in the Triassic Sherwood Sands at 1,600 metres and extends under Poole Bay.
Frome, meanwhile, extends eastwards from the exclusive Sandbanks area of Poole and Studland across the harbour for around 10 six miles under the sea to the south of Bournemouth.
Wessex’s growing interests in the UK are just part of the story. The group also owns 70 per cent of the Juan de Nova project in the Mozambique Channel, and a 1.25 per cent stake in the Zaedyus discovery off the coast of Guyane.
The company’s share price more than doubled when operator Tullow Oil (LON:TLW) revealed it had encountered significant accumulations of oil last year.
The work also established that Zaedyus was the mirror image of the Jubilee Field off the coast of Ghana and suggests it has uncovered a new oil frontier.
The interest in the discovery was underlined last month when Wessex was able to raise £12 million from institutional investors.
