InfraStrata plc has been offered as operator a traditional oil and gas licence by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) in the second tranche of offers for the 26th Seaward Licensing Round. The licence covers three offshore Blocks 97/14, 97/15 and 98/11, covering an area of 584 square kilometres adjacent to the Dorset coast close to the giant Wytch Farm oilfield. The initial licence term will be four years with a decision on drilling a well required within the first two years.

InfraStrata has been offered a 50% operated licence interest and subject to DECC approvals, a 12% licence interest will be assigned from InfraStrata to Corfe Energy Limited (a company 50% owned by InfraStrata) and 10% to Nautical Petroleum plc, resulting in a 28% interest being held directly by InfraStrata.

Commenting on the licence award, Andrew Hindle, CEO of InfraStrata plc said,"We are very pleased to be offered this licence which the Company will shortly be formally accepting from DECC. 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. 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. 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."

Tags: InfraStrata