LONDON (Alliance News) - The companies participating in the Horse Hill licence in the UK Monday said the latest test to be carried out on the initial well on the licence has flowed at a stable rate of 323 barrels of oil per day, double the the previously reported rate.
The latest test was carried out on the Upper Portland sandstone interval, which only produced a flow rate of 168 barrels per day earlier this month.
Despite the improved flow rate, the Upper Portland interval has still yielded the worst result of the three intervals.
Taking the new flow rate into account, the three intervals within the Horse Hill-1 well have produced a final aggregate flow rate of 1,688 barrels of oil per day compared to the previous flow rate of 1,528 barrels.
The other two intervals in addition to the Upper Portland are the Lower Kimmeridge limestone and the Upper Kimmeridge limestone, which yielded stable flow rates of 901 and 464 barrels of oil per day, respectively.
The companies said there was "no clear indication" of any reservoir pressure depletion during any of the flowtests, but said further analysis is being carried out.
"Given these exceptional results, the company has commissioned Nutech to investigate a possible upgrade to the oil in place calculated within all 3 test zones together with engineering studies to examine possible flow rates from a horizontal well," said UK Oil & Gas Investment PLC, one of the companies involved in the project.
"Reservoir engineering analyses by Nutech and Xodus are also underway, and will likely result in an estimation of potential recoverable volumes," UK Oil added.
Preparation is now underway to obtain regulatory permissions to conduct extended production tests from all 3 zones at the site, followed by a horizontal sidetrack in the Kimmeridge and a possible new Portland development well.
"The flow test results are outstanding, demonstrating North Sea-like oil rates from an onshore well. This simple vertical well has achieved an impressive aggregate oil rate equivalent to 8.5% of total UK onshore daily oil production," said Stephen Sanderson, chairman of UK Oil & Gas Investments.
Horse Hill Developments owns a 65% stake in the project, with the rest held by Magellan Petroleum Corp.
UK Oil and Gas holds a 30% stake in Horse Hill Developments, Alba Mineral Resources PLC holds a 15% interest whilst Stellar Resources PLC and Solo Oil PLC each hold 10% stakes in Horse Hill Developments. Regency Mines PLC holds a 5% stake and Evocutis PLC holds a smaller a 2% stake.
UK Oil shares were up 3.3% on Monday morning whilst Alba shares were down 3.6%. Solo Oil shares were up 4.4% and Regency shares were up 7.6%.
Evocutis and Stellar shares were untraded on Monday morning.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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