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Lenigas praises UKOG ‘oil dude’ but not everyone is in good books as Gatwick well gushes again

Published: 09:34 11 Oct 2018 BST

oil and gas operations
Located about five miles from the Airport, the 'gusher' is looking promising

Natural resources executive and small-cap dealmaker David Lenigas made an ideally timed visit to the Horse Hill site, as the so-called Gatwick Gusher well yesterday provided impressive initial production testing results.

Lenigas, as has become customary, shared a number of images and insights with his ten thousand strong Twitter following.

It included praise for Stephen Sanderson, chief executive of UK Oil & Gas PLC (LON:UKOG), which is the largest listed stakeholder in Horse Hill with an indirect 46% interest.

Solo Oil management in firing line

Lenigas was less complimentary when it came to Solo Oil PLC (LON:SOLO), a company he previously ran and in which he is still a shareholder.

Solo last month traded its stake in Horse Hill with UKOG, receiving a 4.3% stake (at the time worth £4.5mln) in its AIM-quoted peer – though in recent days, according to stock market announcements, Solo has been selling at least some of its UKOG shareholding.

On Monday, investors were informed via London’s RNS that Solo has in the previous week reduced its shareholding down to 3.98%.

Investors, in light of Lenigas’s tweet, may now be keeping eyes peeled for notifications of any further share sales.

Horse Hill well results

The latest results coming out of the Horse Hill production test have exceeded those seen in the previous tests back in. UKOG on Wednesday revealed that the first Kimmeridge test saw oil flow continuously and naturally from the KL3 zone to surface.

The flow of oil measured at rates between 563 and 771 barrels of oil per day during tests. At the same time, gas rates measured at 186 thousand cubic feet per day via an enclosed flare.

The 2018 test rates to date compare very favourably to the 464 bopd rate recorded for the same Kimmeridge section two years ago.

Also, UKOG said that pressure data indicates that the KL3 zone and the overlying KL4 zone comprise one single connected oil pool, with an implied minimum vertical extent of 358 feet.

Four tankers carrying crude produced in the Kimmeridge test have been transported to the Fawley refinery. The company added that no formation water has been recorded, and although it noted that water from well completion continues to be recovered as the well continues to proceed through the ‘clean up’ phase.

The Horse Hill production test programme continues. The first 24-hour pressure build up (PBU) test is now underway. It will be followed by further operations including additional clean-up, flow stabilization, oil sampling, and more PBUs.

After that, the programme will move on to test production from KL4 where, in 2016, a rate equivalent to 901 bopd was measured over a four hour period.

More snaps and insights from Lenigas

Lenigas’s tweets, embedded below, show various pieces of surface infrastructure at Horse Hill, as well as some further insights for those that may be a little more technically minded (albeit, they may not entirely match those stated in the regulated news service).

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