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LONDON (Alliance News) - Union Jack Oil PLC Monday said that an independent technical report carried out on its PEDL201 licence in the UK Midlands has confirmed significant shale oil and gas potential at the Widmerpool Gulf region of the site.
The UK-focused oil and gas exploration and development company said the report, carried out by Molten Ltd, has shown mean gross unrisked estimates of 5.4 billion barrels of oil and over 2.7 trillion standard cubic feet of gas in the region.
Union Jack Oil holds a 10% interest in the site while Egdon Resources PLC holds 32.5%.
Union Jack said that the report shows that in the northern section of the licence there exists areas with significant Upper and Lower Bowland Shale formations, which Molten considers likely to be primarily oil-bearing.
Union Jack Oil said that based on its interest in the site, the company holds roughly 540 million stock tank barrels of oil initially in place and roughly 270 billion standard cubic feet of gas initially in place.
The company noted that even if the recovery factors of the resource are at the low end of those achieved in the US, the volumes would have significant value. However, it said that there is no certainty that any portion of the resource will be commercially producible.
A conventional well is planned at the southern region of the PEDL201 licence in the third quarter, but this area is not considered prospective for shale oil or shale gas.
"The company's immediate priority remains to unlock the conventional exploration potential within our current licence interests. We look forward to the imminent drilling of two exploration wells, Wressle-1 and Burton on the Wolds-1, both targeting conventional reservoir objectives," Executive Chairman David Bramhill said in a statement.
Union Jack Oil also noted that it plans to be involved in the bidding process for interests in new UK drilling sites when the 14th licensing round is announced by the Department of Energy and Climate Change later this year.
By Tom McIvor; tommcivor@alliancenews.com; @TomMcIvor1
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