A fairly busy week for the oil and gas sector.
Chariot Oil & Gas Limited (LON:CHAR) cheered investors on Friday as it revealed it had secured a drilling rig for the upcoming RD-1 well, targeting the JP-1 exploration prospect which forms part of its operations in Morocco.
Project operator ENI has contracted Saipem 12000, an ultra-deepwater drillship, for the programme and it is currently anticipated that the rig will arrive in the later part of the first quarter of 2018 with drilling due to start shortly thereafter.
JP-1 is described as a large, four-way dip closed structure spanning 200 square kilometres areal extent. The target is estimated at 768 mln barrels (gross mean prospective resource).
The closely watched UK Horse Hill oil project was back in the news too and has been approved for an extended flow test by the Environment Agency.
Stakeholders UK Oil & Gas Investments PLC (LON:UKOG) and Solo Oil PLC (LON:SOLO) confirmed that the approval will allow the programme to test the HH-1 well, as well as drill a side-track to HH-1 and the new HH-2 well.
The Horse Hill partners, separately, await planning permission for the project.
An application was submitted in October 2016 and it is anticipated that a decision will be made by the Surrey County Council planning committee on October 18, 2017.
Elsewhere, SDX Energy Inc (LON:SDX, CVE:SDX) also saw shares rise this week as it revealed a new oversubscribed US$10mln funding, with new equity issued at Tuesday’s closing mid-market price of 43.75p.
The injection of capital is earmarked for the acceleration of the group’s exploration and appraisal of the South Disouq asset, where a well last year confirmed a new gas discovery, in addition to the development drilling programmes in Morocco.
Specifically, SDX said it will now be fully funded to take South Disouq to first gas, targeted for the first quarter of 2018, and two additional exploration wells in the South Disouq area for targets amounting to 150bn cubic feet of gas.
In Morocco, it will be able to pay for two additional development wells – with the proposed programme growing to seven development wells and two explorations wells – and it will also fund a potential 3D seismic programme which could unearth new Morocco drill targets for 2019.
Meanwhile, Empyrean Energy PLC (LON:EME) gave further details from the Dempsey 1-15 well, in the Sacremento basin in California, with additional new reports of significant gas shows.
The company’s partner Sacgasco reported that the well has now drilled through a hard siltstone-shale section into the primary gas bearing sand, with drilling presently advancing below 2,760 metres to evaluate the remaining conventional sandstone remaining target (in the next 440 metres).
"After slow and steady drilling through some very hard rocks over the last few days, we are very encouraged to see the best looking gas shows from another sand in what we now believe to be part of the primary target zone in this well,” said chief executive Tom Kelly.
Broker WH Ireland was caught on the hop by Wednesday's positive operational update from UK Oil & Gas Investments PLC (LON:UKOG).
The broker has its target price under review after being surprised by the increased column of fractured Kimmeridge formation.
The company said it has completed perforating and well completion operations at the Broadford Bridge-1z well and that it is rigging-up well production testing equipment, while all permissions are in place to test the well.
Meanwhile, Aminex PLC (LON:AEX) this week confirmed a major project milestone at the Ntorya gas project, in Tanzania, where it has now submitted a field development plan to the authorities.
The oil and gas firm explained that this is a ‘key step’ towards securing a development licence and the commercialisation of the Ntorya gas discovery.
It highlighted that the development plan incorporates findings from a commercialisation study, and it includes the new mapping of Ntorya (which was the basis of a very significant new upgrade to resource estimates, released earlier.
It sees some 1.3 trillion cubic feet of gas at Ntorya).
The submission is now subject to review by the Tanzanian authorities, and Aminex said it intends to update investors on the process before the spudding of the Ntorya-3 well, planned in the fourth quarter.