26 Aug 2015 07:05
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, 7:05 am 26 August 2015
SOLO OIL PLC
("Solo" or the "Company")
Weald Basin Update
Solo notes with interest further resource estimates provided by UK Oil & Gas Investments PLC ("UKOG") which have been independently prepared by Schlumberger within the 55 square miles of the PEDL137 and PEDL246 Horse Hill licences ("the Licence Area") in the Weald Basin, located in the South East of England. Solo has a net attributable interest of 6.5% in the Licence Area.
UKOG have stated that the tight Jurassic limestones and shales of the Kimmeridge Clay Formation in the Licence Area are calculated to contain a total oil in place ("OIP") of 8,262 million barrels, with the shales of the Oxford Clay and Lias Formations containing a further aggregate OIP of 2,731 million barrels. A breakdown of Schlumberger's analysis by formation is given in Table 1.
Table 1: Licence Area mean OIP estimates, millions of barrels ("mmbbls")
Formation | Mean OIP (mmbbls) |
Kimmeridge Clay | 8,262 |
Oxford Clay | 1,017 |
Lias | 1,714 |
TOTAL | 10,993 |
This analysis, conducted solely for UKOG, builds upon Schlumberger's previous petrophysical evaluation of the Horse Hill-1 well ("HH-1"), located in PEDL137 near to London Gatwick Airport, and announced on 5 June 2015. Further independent work by Nutech was announced on 18 June 2015. The new report incorporates the analysis of a further nine wells located within or near to the Licence Area. In Schlumberger's previous HH-1 analysis a total mean OIP, excluding the Upper Portland sandstone oil discovery, of 255 million barrels of oil per square mile was calculated. The latest estimate is equivalent to approximately 200 million barrels per square mile on an average basis across the Licence Area.
It should be noted, as previously reported, that the HH-1 Upper Portland sandstone oil discovery is a geologically separate oil accumulation from, and additional to, the identified underlying Jurassic tight oil plays being reported on by Schlumberger.
Neil Ritson, Solo's Chairman, commented:
"Whilst the new data from Schlumberger does not materially change the estimates previously released following work conducted by Nutech for UKOG and Solo, we are of course encouraged by the similarity of the resources estimated made by two independent groups using their own proprietary methodologies. The prospective resources in the Jurassic could clearly be very substantial. The upcoming flow test of the Portlandian discovery will also be important in establishing the viability of conventional reservoirs to produce commercially from the Horse Hill oil discovery."
Estimated OIP hydrocarbon volumes should not be construed as recoverable resources or reserves and also should not be construed in any way to reflect potential production of hydrocarbons from the formations evaluated.
Solo's interest in the Licence Area and Horse Hill:
The Licence Area, comprising licences PEDL137 and PEDL246, is located on the northern side of the Weald Basin of South East England near Gatwick Airport. The HH-1 discovery well is located in PEDL137. Solo owns a 10% direct interest in Horse Hill Developments Ltd ("HHDL") a special purpose company that owns a 65% participating interest and is the operator of the Licence Area. The remaining 35% participating interest in the Licence Area is held by Magellan Petroleum Corporation.
Qualified Person's Statement:
The information contained in this announcement has been reviewed and approved by Neil Ritson, Chairman and Director for Solo Oil Plc who has over 38 years of relevant experience in the energy sector. Mr. Ritson is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, an Active Member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and is a Fellow of the Geological Society of London.
For further information:
Solo Oil plc Neil Ritson Fergus Jenkins | +44 (0) 20 3794 9230 |
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Shore Capital Joint Broker Pascal Keane Jerry Keen (Corporate Broker)
Bell Pottinger Public Relations Henry Lerwill
Cassiopeia Services LLP Investor Relations Stefania Barbaglio |
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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 |
electric logs | tools used within the wellbore to measure the rock and fluid properties of surrounding rock formations |
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 |
mean | or expected value, is the probability-weighted average of all possible values and is a measure of the central tendency either of a probability distribution or of the random variable characterised by that distribution |
oil in place | the quantity of oil or petroleum that is estimated to exist originally in naturally occurring accumulations before any extraction or production |
petrophysics | the study of physical and chemical rock properties and their interactions with fluids utilising electric logs, physical rock and fluid measurements |
play | a set of known or postulated oil and or gas accumulations sharing similar geologic, geographic, and temporal properties, such as source rock, migration pathways, timing, trapping mechanism, and hydrocarbon type |
recoverable resources | those quantities of petroleum (oil in this case) estimated, as of a given date, to be potentially recoverable from known accumulations |
reserves | those quantities of petroleum anticipated to be commercially recoverable by application of development projects to known accumulations from a given date forward under defined conditions; reserves must further satisfy four criteria: they must be discovered, recoverable, commercial and remaining (as of the evaluation date) based on the development project(s) applied; reserves are further categorized in accordance with the level of certainty associated with the estimates and may be sub-classified based on project maturity and/or characterised by development and production status |
reservoir | a subsurface rock formation containing an individual natural accumulation of moveable petroleum |
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 |
shale | a laminated and fissile very fine-grained sedimentary rock, consisting of compacted silt and clay-size mineral particles. Can contain high proportions of organic material, which if subjected to heat and pressure over geological time can generate petroleum (a petroleum source rock) |
tight oil play, or resource play | a play where oil is found or expected to be present within a reservoir with low permeability, i.e. a tight reservoir. The term, in the case of HH-1, 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"). |