6 Oct 2014 07:00
REGENCY MINES PLC
("Regency" or the "Company")
Drilling Update, Horse Hill-1, Weald Basin UK
6th October 2014
Regency Mines Plc, the natural resources exploration company with interests in oil in the United Kingdom and United States, and nickel and other minerals in Australia, Papua New Guinea and Sudan, is pleased to announce a drilling update for the Horse Hill-1 conventional oil and gas well in the Weald Basin of the southern UK
Regency today advises that the Horse Hill-1 well has intersected the Portland Sandstone over the weekend and has encountered oil shows identified by mud logging from 2,100 feet to 2,140 feet measured depth ("MD"). At 14:00 hours yesterday, the well was drilling ahead at 3,030 feet MD towards the other primary and secondary targets.
Sandstone drill cuttings recovered from the well have been analyzed and are confirmed by the operator to have "a dull yellow fluorescence with a slow diffuse light blue cut with a trace of residual oil ring". This indicates the presence of oil within a porous and permeable rock matrix. Gas readings within the mud over the same interval were also elevated and recorded gases compositions consistent with the presence of oil.
The Horse Hill-1 well is located on the northern side of UK Weald Basin near Gatwick Airport and is planned to test a number of conventional oil and gas targets. The primary oil reservoir targets in this well lie in the Jurassic age Portland Sandstone and the Corallian Sandstone. There are also a number of secondary oil targets in the Jurassic formations, including the Great Oolite Limestone. The well is presently being drilled to the second of the primary targets in the Corallian Sandstone.
Electric logs will be acquired on reaching the third casing point at approximately 5,900 feet MD before setting a 9 5/8-inch casing. The well will then be drilled with an 8 ½-inch hole will be drilled to 8,658 feet total depth ("TD") in order to test for Triassic aged formations which are expected to contain gas.
Regency owns a 5% interest in HHDL, a special purpose company which owns a 65% participating interest and operatorship of onshore licences PEDL137 and the adjacent licence PEDL 246 in the UK Weald Basin. Regency also owns an additional 0.47% interest in HHDL by virtue of its 9.39% ownership in Alba Mineral Resources Plc ("Alba"). Alba owns 5% of HHDL. The participants in the Horse Hill-1 well are HHDL with a 65% working interest and Magellan with a 35% interest.
Andrew Bell, the Company's Chairman, commented:
"Drilling has shown the presence of the anticipated Portland Sandstone reservoir and the oil shows are an encouraging development. We will gain considerably more information from electric logs that will be run at the end of the current section of the well, and in the meantime we have further primary oil targets to drill."
Glossary:
Fluorescence: The natural property of minerals and fluids to emit light, characteristic in certain situations, of the presence of hydrocarbons
Drill cuttings: Rock chips from the subsurface formations recovered by filtering the drilling mud
MD: measured depth
(Drilling) Mud: Drilling fluid used to clean and lubricate the drilling process and recover samples of the subsurface formation to surface
For further information, please contact:
Andrew Bell 0207 747 9960 or 0776 647 4849 Chairman Regency Mines Plc
Roland Cornish/Rosalind Hill Abrahams 0207 628 3396 NOMAD Beaumont Cornish Limited
Jason Robertson 0129 351 7744 Broker Dowgate Capital Stockbrokers Ltd.
Rupert Trefgarne0203 128 8817 Media Relations MHP Communications