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(Alliance News) - Alba Mineral Resources PLC said Tuesday Horse Hill -1 Portland extended well test production resumed on Thursday last week.
UK Oil & Gas owns an 86% interest in the Horse Hill PEDL 137 and PEDL 246 licenses, located in Surrey, England. Alba Mineral Resources PLC owns 12% interest in the licences.
Over the past 24 hours, stable dry-oil extended well test production has averaged 293 barrels of oil per day "at a modest drawdown", demonstrating the Portland perforated interval has remained in good condition since the last shut-in in June, Alba noted.
The company also said as a result of a successful reservoir pressure "interference" testing campaign, undertaken to assess the degree of communication between Horse Hill-1 and the new Horse Hill-2z horizontal, it is now intended to accelerate the start of up to 25 years of continuous long-term production by six months.
Subject to Oil & Gas Authority approval, production is now planned to commence by bringing Horse Hill -1 into production during spring 2020, to be followed by Horse Hill-2z upon successful completion of the planned Horse Hill-2z extended well test programme, Alba said.
The company said a revised Horse Hill Field Development Plan was submitted to the UK Oil & Gas Authority and subject to its final consent, conversion of Horse Hill-2z to production status from its current extended well test status will take place in the third quarter of 2020.
George Frangeskides, executive chair, said: "Alba is very pleased to learn of the successful restart of Portland production from the HH-1 well and of the updated plans for the commencement of long-term continuous production at the Horse Hill Oil Field this year."
In a separate statement, Alba said that maiden drilling at the Clogau-St David's gold mine in north Wales intersected a quartz vein sequence up to some 25 metres below the known historical mine workings.
The mineral exploration & development company said the objective of the drilling was to identify possible gold-bearing extensions to one particular target area at Clogau, being the Llechfraith mine workings.
In addition to the confirmation of quartz vein structure at depth, the assay results have also confirmed the presence within the drillcore of gold mineralisation above the analytical detection limit.
The company said these results indicate that a gold-bearing system may exist within that quartz vein sequence at depth. It also gives the company confidence to start a follow up work at the mine.
Alba Mineral shares were up 1.4% in London at 0.14 pence each on Tuesday, while UK Oil & Gas shares were trading 7.1% higher at 0.75p each.
By Loreta Juodagalvyte; loretajuodagalvyte@alliancenews.com
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