Union Jack Oil PLC told investors that a key regulatory hurdle has been cleared at the West Newton gas development in East Yorkshire after operator Rathlin received an Environment Agency permit variation to enable reservoir stimulation in the WNA-2 well.
The company said the variation applies to the West Newton ‘A’ well site and is subject to certain pre-operational conditions. The planned recompletion is designed to address wellbore damage sustained during earlier drilling operations.
Union Jack described the work as a low-cost, low-risk step that should further de-risk the subsurface case while gathering data to help optimise future production wells. It also positioned the milestone as strengthening progress toward eventual development and production at West Newton. It holds a 16% interest in the project.