UK Oil & Gas Investments (LON:UKOG) has been given permission to take its 20% interest in the Weald Basin licence PEDL143, onshore UK, which hosts the Holmwood project.
Holmwood, next door to UKOG’s high profile Horse Hill project, was granted planning permission for a vertical well in September.
The company had previously agreed with Egdon Resources that it would invest in the project is it got the green light from the planners. And, today, it confirms that the UK regulator Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) has now rubber stamped the arrangement.
It is planned that the Holmwood well with test a conventional oil prospect, as well as the deeper features encountered in the nearby Horse Hill well.
Specifically, it aims to penetrate the Upper and Lower Portland Sandstone conventional reservoir targets, the full Kimmeridge tight oil section and the underlying Middle Jurassic Corallian Sandstone reservoir objective.
The well, tagged H-1, was previously estimated to have 5.6mln barrels of prospective resources.
Stephen Sanderson, UKOG chief executive, meanwhile, highlights that H1 will be only the third modern well to examine what he describes as the Kimmeridge tight oil play fairway and as such it will provide insightful data points for the overall tight oil proof of concept process in the Weald Basin.
“The additional potential contained within the Kimmeridge tight oil section, to be tested by the H-1 well, provides the company with both a stronger overall position in the tight oil play fairway and a further opportunity to validate the regional extent and commerciality of the play,” Sanderson said.
“Given UKOG's position in the Kimmeridge limestone play, together with its knowledgeable position in the Portland gained from Brockham and Horse Hill-1, we plan to be an active partner, particularly in assisting well design and data acquisition within the H-1 well.
He added: “We look forward to a fruitful relationship with the partnership and future success in the H-1 well."