Alba Mineral Resources plc’s (LON:ALBA) investment in the Horse Hill oil project continues to see a boost from ongoing test production and fresh drill programmes promise new potential value catalysts in the coming months.
Today, a new update from Horse Hill’s Portland reservoir production test revealed that oil has continued to flow at a stable rate of 220 barrels per day. It is a constrained rate, held below the 362 bopd top rate seen previously, due to prudent reservoir management.
READ: Alba looks forward to Brockham progress as work starts
UK Oil & Gas plc (LON:UKOG), the largest London-listed stakeholder I the project, told investors that the drill programme for the HH-1z sidetrack well and the HH2 well is slated to start during the current quarter.
To date, more than 15,000 barrels of oil have been produced from the Portland during Horse Hill’s extended test phase and UKOG highlighted that it is increasingly confident that via new horizontal wells it could achieve a 720 to 1,080 bopd target from the Portland reservoir.
It was also noted that the overall test production programme has now yielded over 40,000 barrels of crude in aggregate, from the Portland and Kimmeridge zones. Some 25,000 barrels were previously produced from the latter during earlier stages of the test programme.
A total of 186 tankers have so far transported crude to the Hamble oil terminal. The Portland crude, at 36 degree API, is sold at the prevailing Brent price, less deductions for handling and marketing.