Last checked at 30 Nov 2015 11:15
Stellar Resources plc
("Stellar Resources" or the "Company")
Horse Hill-1 Oil Discovery, Weald Basin, UK
Flow Test Consent from the UK Environment Agency
Stellar Resources (AIM: STG, ISDX: STG) is pleased to announce that it has been informed by Horse Hill Developments Limited ("HHDL") that the Environment Agency ("EA") has formally granted the necessary permit to flow test the Horse Hill-1 ("HH-1") oil discovery well. The HH-1 well, drilled at the end of 2014, is located within onshore exploration Licence PEDL137, on the northern side of the Weald Basin near Gatwick Airport, in which Stellar Resources owns a 6.5% interest.
Operational planning for the test is in the final stages of completion and the necessary work-over rig and test equipment have been contracted. The Company expects these flow tests to be conducted in the coming months following the last remaining regulatory sign-offs from the Health and Safety Executive ("HSE") and Oil and Gas Authority ("OGA").
The flow test is designed to test both the oil bearing Upper Portland sandstone reservoir and the Kimmeridge limestone reservoirs beneath the Portland. The test will provide the necessary reservoir engineering data to enable the Company to assess the commercial viability of the Portland sandstone oil discovery, which encountered significant oil shows whilst drilling, and to further the "proof of concept" process for the Kimmeridge tight oil play, which has previously been shown to flow oil elsewhere in the same formations of the Weald Basin at Balcombe, some 10 miles to the south.
Stellar Resources' interest in Horse Hill:
The HH-1 well is located within onshore exploration Licence PEDL137, on the northern side of the Weald Basin near Gatwick Airport. Stellar Resources owns a 10% direct interest in HHDL. HHDL is a special purpose company that owns a 65% participating interest and operatorship of Licence PEDL137 and the adjacent Licence PEDL246 in the UK Weald Basin.
For further information please contact:
Stellar Resources plc: +44 (0) 20 7440 0640
Donald Strang / Emma Priestley
Nominated Adviser:
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP +44 (0) 20 7148 7900
James Caithie / Sandy Jamieson
Broker:
Optiva Securities Limited +44 (0) 20 3137 1902
Christian Dennis / Jeremy King
Public Relations:
Square1 Consulting +44 (0) 20 7929 5599
David Bick / Mark Longson
Glossary
discovery | a discovery is a petroleum accumulation for which one or several exploratory wells have established through testing, sampling and/or logging the existence of a significant quantity of potentially moveable hydrocarbons |
flow test | a flow test or well test involves testing a well by flowing hydrocarbons to surface, typically through a test separator. Key measured parameters are oil and gas flow rates, downhole pressure and surface pressure. The overall objective is to identify the well's capacity to produce hydrocarbons at a commercial flow rate |
limestone | a sedimentary rock predominantly composed of calcite (a crystalline mineral form of calcium carbonate) of organic, chemical or detrital origin. Minor amounts of dolomite, chert and clay are common in limestones. Chalk is a form of fine-grained limestone |
play | a set of known or postulated oil and or gas accumulations sharing similar geological, geographical, and temporal properties, such as source rock, migration pathways, timing, trapping mechanism, and hydrocarbon type |
sandstone | a clastic sedimentary rock whose grains are predominantly sand-sized. The term is commonly used to imply consolidated sand or a rock made of predominantly quartz sand. |
tight oil | oil found or expected to be present within a reservoir with low permeability, i.e. a tight reservoir. The term, in the case of the Weald Tight Oil Plays, is applied to a play where trapped petroleum accumulations are expected to be pervasive throughout a large area and that are not significantly affected by hydrodynamic influences (also called "continuous-type deposits") |