UK Oil & Gas Investments PLC (LON:UKOG) has been granted a one-year extension to an exploration licence on the Isle of Wight.
P1916 contains an undrilled Portland limestone conventional oil prospect, which is a look-alike to the nearby Arreton Portland oil discovery, on the company’s next-door PEDL331 onshore acreage. A deeper Triassic sandstone prospect lies directly beneath the Portland target in P1916.
The firm will submit a planning application to drill in the coming year.
"UKOG's future planned Isle of Wight operations are aimed solely at the extraction of oil from conventional naturally-fractured limestone and sandstone reservoirs, not shale, and therefore will not utilise massive hydraulic fracturing,” said chief executive Stephen Sanderson.
“Our drilling on the island is intended to cause zero hazards to any groundwater by employing the same drilling fluids and practices used by the water supply industry to drill drinking-water abstraction wells within the UK's limestone aquifers.
“This drilling technology is intended to include the use of modern biodegradable drilling fluids, manufactured from 100% natural plant starches, which are approved for use under the UK's Water Supply Regulations."