UK Oil & Gas Investments PLC (LON:UKOG) announced today that UKOG Solent Limited, a 100%-owned subsidiary, has been advised that the Oil and Gas Authority has granted a one-year extension to the Initial Term of the Company’s offshore P1916 licence to 31st January 2018. The Company holds a 100% interest in P1916.
As previously reported by the Company, P1916 contains an undrilled Portland limestone conventional oil prospect, which is a look-alike to the nearby Arreton Portland oil discovery, located in the Company’s adjacent PEDL331 onshore licence. A deeper Triassic sandstone prospect lies directly beneath the Portland target in P1916.
The company plans to submit a planning application to drill one or more prospects in the Isle of Wight during the coming year.
Stephen Sanderson, UK Oil & Gas Investments PLC Executive Chairman, commented: “UKOG’s future planned Isle of Wight operations are aimed solely at the extraction of oil from conventional naturally-fractured limestone and sandstone reservoirs, not shale, and therefore will not utilise massive hydraulic fracturing.
Our drilling on the island is intended to cause zero hazards to any groundwater by employing the same drilling fluids and practices used by the water supply industry to drill drinking-water abstraction wells within the UK’s limestone aquifers. This drilling technology is intended to include the use of modern biodegradable drilling fluids, manufactured from 100% natural plant starches, which are approved for use under the UK’s Water Supply Regulations.”
