(Alliance News) - Independent Oil & Gas PLC on Tuesday said it expects to start work at the Harvey appraisal well in July, with preparations now well underway.
The Harvey structure is located on licence P2085 in the southern North Sea. The rig to be used is currently operating in the central North Sea, and will be moved to Harvey by the end of July.
From then, appraisal drilling at Harvey will take up to two months. In the meantime, IOG and its partner are completing final procurement, regulatory, and other preparatory works.
Elsewhere, IOG is continuing to look for a farmout in the southern North Sea, and it could release further updates in July. This will provide "significant" funding towards coming to an investment decision on the assets.
Lastly, IOG is still in advanced talks over buying the Thames Reception Facilities at the Bacton gas terminal. There are some legal land title complexities, as previously mentioned, and work is ongoing to resolve these.
Chief Executive Andrew Hockey said: "We are pleased to confirm we are on schedule to drill our exciting appraisal well at Harvey.
"The well is a major catalyst for IOG, potentially proving up a substantial, high-quality reservoir in the heart of our core area, close to our fully-owned Thames pipeline. Final preparations are underway and the summer drilling slot should help to minimise weather-related operational risks in executing the well."
"Needless to say, our primary focus remains to progress the funding of our core project to final investment decision and in particular the farm-out process. We are highly motivated to deliver a farm-out transaction that can enable us to progress to FID this summer," he added.
Shares were 1.5% higher on Tuesday afternoon at 14.85 pence each.