Eland Oil & Gas PLC (LON:ELA) on Friday updated on the field development operations at the Gbetiokun project area, where the initial discovery well has now been re-opened for production.
Gbetiokun is to be the second producing oil field in within the OML 40 set of assets, following on from the successes at the Opuama well which is currently producing more than the targeted 30,000 bopd.
The company noted that having re-entered the Gbetiokun-1 well, it is now being completed in the E2000 and E6000 reservoirs which will give access to some 69 feet and 45 feet of net pay respectively. Next, the rig team will move onto the Gbetiokun-3 well which will have multiple appraisal objectives, and, will be completed in the D9000 and E7000 reservoir sections.
Earlier in the week, Eland confirmed the renewal of Oil Mining Lease 40 (OML 40) for a period of 20 years.
Eland’s Elcrest subsidiary will now be subject to a ‘renewal bonus’ of US$6.3mln to be payable to the Nigerian authorities within the next 90 days. Elcrest will also be required to commit to signing a gas monetisation and sales agreement within five years.
Union Jack Oil PLC (LON:UJO)
Thursday saw Union Jack shares jump in late-afternoon trading after it said its planning permission for the West Newton-A wellsite in Yorkshire has been extended. The oiler said planning permission had been extended for a further 36 months at a meeting of the East Riding of Yorkshire Council's planning committee.
The firm formally completed an acquisition of a 16.667% stake in the West Newton gas discovery earlier this month as part of a deal with Rathlin Energy, a subsidiary of Canadian firm Connaught Oil & Gas.
The discovery is located onshore UK in East Yorkshire, within the western part of the Southern Zechstein Basin, and contains an estimated contingent resource of 189bn cubic feet of gas equivalent or 31.5mln barrels of oil equivalent.
Alba Mineral Resources Plc (LON:ALBA)
Alba chairman George Frangeskides described the company as “very encouraged” following the release of the latest data out of the Horse Hill production testing campaign. A deluge of stats has indicated the so-called ‘Gatwick Gusher’ project’s Kimmeridge zones can be “commercially viable”, according to the project’s operator.
It was revealed that the KL3 zone, one of the multiple zones in the targeted Kimmeridge play, had initially produced oil at a rate of 771 barrels of oil per day, and, marked a peak rate of 909 bopd, before reducing to averaging a rate of 342 bopd over the full test period.
In total, some 10,2448 barrels of oil was produced from the KL3 zone over the course of the 30-day programme, which included 9 days of pressure build up (when no oil flowed)and a variety of tests on different well configurations. Additionally, the KL3 produced 3.5mln cubic feet of total gas to date.
UKOG said that well-testing results to date indicate that the KL3 zone is “commercially viable”. The programme will now move on to open up and the test KL4 zone for testing. Back in 2016, a four-hour long test in the zone saw a production rate equivalent to 901 bopd.
Echo Energy Plc (LON:ECHO)
Echo told investors it expects to kick off a two-well stimulation programme in Argentina within the next three to four weeks.
The company earlier this year drilled four wells across its onshore Argentina portfolio, within the Fracción C licence, two of which were seen as successful. Notably, one well was thought to be particularly material following the analysis of wireline log data.
Both will now be followed up by a programme of stimulation, followed by well testing. Equipment required to stimulate the wells is now expected to become available at the beginning of December.
Providence Resources PLC (LON:PVR)
A well site survey at Dunquin South in the Irish Atlantic Margin has been approved by the licence consortium, Providence said.
Dunquin South lies within the Porcupine Basin on licence FEL3/04 and the survey is a pre-requisite for a first exploration well. Italian group Eni (36.9%) is the operator, with Repsol (33.5%), Providence (26.8%) and Sosina (2.7%).
The decision to explore follows the company's interpretation of the newly acquired 3D seismic data.
Hurricane Energy PLC’s (LON:HUR)
The Aoka Mizu floating production storage and offloading vessel, which is on its way to Hurricane’s Lancaster field development off the west coast of the Shetland Islands, has put into Algeciras, Spain for planned personnel changes and bunkering.
The FPSO left Dubai almost a month ago and is headed for Rotterdam where it will undergo a final scope of work before moving on to Lancaster. Hurricane said the stopover in Algeciras, next to Gibraltar on Spain’s south coast, will be extended so work to repair an auxiliary system associated with power generation can be carried out.
Jersey Oil and Gas PLC (LON:JOG)
Jersey was informed that the Verbier appraisal well will now likely be drilled in the first quarter of 2019, rather than in the current quarter. Verbier is due to be the second well in a four-well drill programme operated by Equinor (formerly known as Statoil).
It is to be an appraisal follow-up to a successful exploration well from 2017. It aims to de-risk a proposed field development, prove up additional oil resources and narrow the current resource range of 25mln to 130mln barrels.
Touchstone Exploration Inc (LON:TXP, TSE:TXP)
Trinidad-focused Touchstone Exploration told investors that crude oil production averaged 1,758 barrels per day in the third quarter as the group's successful well programmes continued to deliver.
The third quarter production measure represented a 22% improvement from the comparative period the previous year. Touchstone drilled three new wells and ‘recompleted’ 12 others, spending some US$4.54mln on the development operations.
Mosman Oil And Gas Limited (LON:MSMN)
Mosman said a test recently performed on the producing Stanley-1 well in the US clearly shows potential for higher flow rates once current gas constraints are removed.
The AIM-listed oil exploration, development and production company the test, carried out by the operator, Nadsoilco LLC, and independent third parties, was limited due to the size of the test separator and was not an absolute open hole test.
The company said over several hours the well was flowed through increasingly larger choke sizes and the flow rate was allowed to stabilise at each stage.
The group pointed out that the final stable flow was 1,271,000 cfd and 50 bbls per day of liquid hydrocarbons, which is equivalent to 274 boepd. By way of comparison, it added, recent flow rates with the existing infrastructure were averaging 450,000 cfd and 10 bbls per day of liquid hydrocarbons, equivalent to 90 boepd.
Mosman holds a 16.5% working interest in the project.
Cadogan Petroleum PLC (LON:CAD)
Cadogan told investors that it had agreed a deal with Eni and Ukraine firm Nadra Ukrayny, which will see the company receive US$1.75mln from ENI as it exits shale gas operations in the country. “This is a good agreement for all parties,” said Guido Michelotti, Cadogan chief executive.
“It enables Cadogan to withdraw from its gas operations, which are sub economic under the current 70% royalty regime.
“It also secures a more certain future for our loyal employees, who have operated these wells and facilities for the last ten years. Our gratitude goes to them for the hard work they have done on behalf of Cadogan.”