UK North Sea: InfraStrata Granted Traditional Exploration Licence
InfraStrata has taken a 50 per cent operated licence cover three blocks in the UK North Sea, the company has announced.
The company has granted a a 12 per cent licence interest to Corfe Energy Limited, a company that is 50 per cent owned by InfraStrata, and 10 per cent to Nautical Petroleum. The division of interests leaves InfraStrata with a 28 per cent stake.
The licence relates to three blocks, Blocks 97/14, 97/15 and 98/11, over a 584 square kilometre area off the Dorset coast off the United Kingdom. The blocks are close-by to the Wytch Farm oilfield.
CEO of InfraStrata Andrew Hindle says that the area has a strong history of gas and oil finds.
"We are very pleased to be offered this licence which the company will shortly be formally accepting from DECC," he said. "Within and immediately adjacent to the licence area there are a number of active oil and gas seeps. A total of seven wells have been previously drilled within the licence area, including the first UK offshore well in 1963 on Lulworth Banks in Block 97/14. Six of these wells encountered oil or gas shows and three flowed oil or gas on test.
"We look forward to evaluating the potential commerciality of the existing undeveloped oil and gas discoveries contained within this large licence area, and reviewing the potential for further exploration prospects."
InfraStrata has a particular interest in one well previously drilled within the Block 98/11 and says that it has previously shown great potential for gas reserves.
"The company considers the most interesting of the previous wells drilled in the licence area to be the 98/11-2 well drilled in 1984," Mr. Hindle said. This well encountered a 26 metre gas column which was tested and flowed at an approximate rate of 10 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (MMscf/day).
"A reservoir engineering study undertaken for InfraStrata has indicated that this interval would have been capable of flowing at a rate of greater than 40 MMscf/day from the discovery well. The priority of the initial work programme will be to establish the potential commerciality of this discovery via potential onshore development drilling. The work will include reprocessing of existing seismic data to better define the extent and size of the accumulation."