United Oil & Gas PLC (LON:UOG) has said the Colter 98/11a-5 appraisal well, located in the P1918 licence in the Wessex Basin, has been spudded south of Europe’s largest onshore oil field at Wytch Farm.
The oil & gas explorer said the operator Corallian Energy Limited had spudded the well at around 10.10am on Wednesday.
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The Ensco-72 jack-up drilling unit will drill the well to a total depth of 1,830m, a process expected to take three weeks, targeting “significant potential” that had been identified following reprocessing of 3D seismic data at the site.
The well is appraising a historic discovery immediately south of the Wytch Farm oil field, which was discovered in 1986 when well 98/11-3 encountered a 10.5-metre oil column in the Sherwood Sandstone reservoir, the same play that had been productive at Wytch.
The gross un-risked mid-case oil contingent resources in the section proven up by the 98/11-3 well are estimated at 4mln barrels, with gross un-risked mean-case prospective resources estimated at 15mln barrels in the rest of the structure.
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Brian Larkin, chief executive of United, said the firm believed the well offered “an excellent opportunity” to emulate the success it had with the Podere Maiar well at the Selva gas field in Italy, which was opened up to a development project in January following regulatory approval.
In early afternoon trading on Wednesday, UOG shares were 2.1% higher at 4.85p.
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