Lancaster 205/21a-7 Well Spud

RNS Number : 3706D

Hurricane Energy PLC

06 July 2016

 

This announcement contains inside information

 

For immediate release: 6 July 2016

Hurricane Energy plc

("Hurricane" or the "Company)

Lancaster 205/21a-7 Well Spud

Hurricane Energy plc, the UK-based oil and gas company focused on hydrocarbon resources in naturally fractured basement reservoirs, announces that the 205/21a-7 well on the Lancaster field, West of Shetland, was spudded at approximately 01.35 hrs on 6 July 2016, using the Transocean Spitsbergen drilling rig. The well is located on licence P1368 Central in which Hurricane has a 100% interest.

The 205/21a-7 Pilot Well (the "Pilot Well") is the first in a two-well programme designed to refine the Lancaster resource range, provide a second future production well and provide new information to help optimally plan the Lancaster field development.

The Pilot Well's objectives are to:

(1) confirm the depth of oil water contact (OWC) - to help refine Hurricane's estimate of Lancaster's resources by determining the height of the oil column;

(2) evaluate the properties of a potential aquifer - to help refine Hurricane's estimate of recoverable oil by confirming the presence of a basement aquifer and its potential to provide pressure support to the overlying oil column; and

(3) evaluate the Victory sandstone resource range - to assess the potential for material resource upside in the Victory sandstone overlying the basement.

The Pilot Well will be drilled, extensively logged and tested, then permanently plugged and abandoned by filling with cement. Immediately thereafter the 205/21a-7z 1km Horizontal Sidetrack Well (the "Horizontal Well") is expected to be commenced.

The Horizontal Well's objectives are to:

(1) reconfirm production rates achieved in the 2014 horizontal well - to demonstrate that other parts of the reservoir can also deliver commercial flow rates;

(2) further quantify the reservoir characteristics through shut-in/pressure build-up tests - to help ascertain if there are any reservoir barriers as well as improve understanding of how the reservoir fracture system performs; and

3) provide a second production well ahead of the Early Production System.

The combined well operations, referred to as the Lancaster 7 Wells, are expected to last approximately four months after which there will be a period of data analysis. A further announcement will be made in due course.

Dr Robert Trice, CEO of Hurricane, commented:

"This is an extremely exciting moment in Hurricane's development as we embark on a drilling programme that will not only complete the remaining well stock required for an Early Production System, but will also help refine our Contingent Resource range for Lancaster - currently 62-456 MMboe - and thereby facilitate a final investment decision and help us better plan for the field development. We look forward to reporting on operations in due course."

Contacts:

Hurricane Energy plc	Dr Robert Trice (Chief Executive Officer)/ Alistair Stobie (Chief Financial Officer)	[phone]
Cenkos Securities plc	Nominated Adviser and Joint Corporate Broker Derrick Lee/Nick Tulloch/Beth McKiernan	[phone]
Macquarie Capital (Europe) Limited	Joint Corporate Broker Ken Fleming/Fergus Marcroft/Charles Lesser	[phone]
Vigo Communications	Public Relations Patrick d'Ancona/Ben Simons	[phone] [e-mail]

About Hurricane

Hurricane is an oil and gas company focused on hydrocarbon resources in naturally fractured basement reservoirs. The Company's focus is to discover, appraise and develop oil reserves in basement rock. Hurricane has already successfully discovered substantial volumes of oil on the UKCS. The Company has 444-470 mmboe of 2C Contingent Resources and 432-442 mmboe of P50 Prospective Resources on acreage it controls 100%.

In 2014, Hurricane drilled and tested an appraisal well on its Lancaster oil field West of Shetland. The highly successful operations demonstrated that the Company could produce commercial quantities of oil from the Lancaster field. The Company is currently undertaking a further well programme on Lancaster, incorporating a Pilot well and a Horizontal Sidetrack well as part of a continuous drilling programme in the summer of 2016. The Pilot well objectives are to confirm the depth of Oil Water Contact, evaluate the properties of a potential aquifer to establish how supportive it is of production, evaluate the overlying Victory sandstone resource range, and help refine the Lancaster Contingent Resource range (currently 62 - 456 mmboe). The Horizontal Sidetrack well will provide a second future production well and will provide new information to help optimally plan the Lancaster field development.

Further information on Hurricane including a glossary of the terms and abbreviations used in this announcement can be found at: www.hurricaneenergy.com.

 

END

 

 

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