Offshore staff
LONDON – Britain’s Oil and Gas Authority has granted UK Oil & Gas Investments a one-year extension to the initial term of the P1916 license offshore the Isle of Wight off the English south coast.
UKOG has a 100% interest in the license, which now runs to Jan. 31, 2018.
It contains an undrilled Portland limestone conventional oil prospect, thought to be analogous to the nearby Arreton Portland oil discovery in the company’s adjacent PEDL331 onshore license.
There is also a deeper Triassic sandstone prospect directly beneath the Portland target in P1916.
The company plans to submit a planning application to drill one or more prospects in the Isle of Wight over the coming year.
Stephen Sanderson, executive chairman, said: “UKOG’s future planned Isle of Wight operations are aimed solely at the extraction of oil from conventional naturally-fractured limestone and sandstone reservoirs, not shale, and therefore will not utilize massive hydraulic fracturing.
“Our drilling on the island is intended to cause zero hazards to any groundwater by employing the same drilling fluids and practices used by the water supply industry to drill drinking-water abstraction wells within the UK’s limestone aquifers.
“This drilling technology is intended to include the use of modern biodegradable drilling fluids, manufactured from 100% natural plant starches, which are approved for use under the UK’s Water Supply Regulations.”
01/19/2017
