AN oil firm is planning to drill an exploratory well six miles off the coast of Studland.
Corallian holds five licence interests in the UK, including a 60% in Colter exploration prospect which is located offshore in close proximity to Wytch Farm, Britain’s largest oil field which has so far produced some 450mln barrels of crude.
Corallian Energy hopes to strike black gold at the site six kilometres east-northeast of the popular beach and nature reserve, and just south of Poole Bay’s Wytch Farm oilfield – the largest onshore field in Europe.
Last year the firm took over from InfraStrata as operator of Petroleum Exploration and Development Licence area P1918, covering a large area of sea bed extending eastwards from the Purbeck peninsular – the proposed site of the rejected Navitus Bay offshore wind farm.
It holds 60 per cent equity in the licence, a partnership with another firm, Corfe Energy Limited.
A report prepared by Corallian says: “The 98/11-E well will be drilled from a Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit (MODU), with operations planned to commence sometime in early 2018, subject to regulatory consent and rig availability.
“It is anticipated that the MODU will be on location for up to 45 days. The well will not be flow tested.
“At the end of the proposed operations, the well will be plugged and abandoned.”
The well would be 1,800m long, drilled vertically into an area dubbed the ‘Colter Prospect’.
The report indicates the machinery used will of the ‘jack-up’ variety – a ship or floating platform with extendable legs to raise it above the water. Its highest point would be roughly 100m above sea level.
The company will need permission from the Crown Estate, the landowner.
Angela Pooley, of East Dorset Friends of the Earth (EDFoE), said her group would submit an objection to the plans.
“They have said if they do discover oil it will be extracted horizontally from Wytch Farm,” she said.
“That is better from a visual point of view than having a rig in the bay, but we will be objecting because we should be moving away from fossil fuels. They should be left where they are.
“Especially when the wind farm was thrown out because of its impact on the coast. This is likely to go through and is slightly closer to the shore.”
InfraStrata, the previous licence holder, won planning permission to drill an exploratory well into the separate ‘Purbeck Prospect’ at California Quarry, just south of Swanage, back in 2013.
The move sparked opposition from environmental groups such as EDFoE and Stop the Swanage Gas Rig, who argued it represented the “industrialisation” of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site.
Ultimately the plans were repeatedly delayed by the firm and were not completed before the planning permission expired.
Highlights – Corallian’s Colter Project:
· Colter is offshore, adjacent to the Wytch Farm oil field, which has produced in excess of 450 million barrels of oil;
· A 1986 discovery well, drilled by BP, on Colter recovered 41.9 API oil on test from a 10.5m oil column;
· Since the 1980’s seismic technology has advanced significantly such that Corallian has used modern techniques to merge and reprocess two offshore 3D seismic datasets which have enabled the identification of over 100m of mapped vertical relief up-dip of the discovery well;
· An appraisal well is planned to be drilled on Colter by Corallian (Operator) in the first half of 2018;
· Corallian estimates gross mean prospective resources of 30 million barrels of recoverable oil for the Colter prospect; and
· Corallian financial modelling based on the above prospective resources forecasts a gross NPV (10) in the success case of £255 million.
On the 1st November, Reabold Resources Plc (LSE AIM:RBD) announce that it has signed two share subscription agreements to invest a total of £1.5million in Corallian Energy Limited (“Corallian”), a private UK oil and gas appraisal and exploration company (the “Investment”). Corallian has a portfolio of UK oil & gas licences, including the Colter appraisal project (“Colter”), that Corallian management states has a high chance of success given the appraisal nature of the project together with industry comparative low drilling costs.
The total subscription is for £1.5million which will give Reabold a 35.4 percent interest, with the right to appoint a director to the board of directors of Corallian. An initial £500,000 subscription in Corallian (the “Tranche A Shares”) will be followed by £1 million at the time of the authorisation for expenditure by the joint venture partnership of P1918 in respect of the Colter well, expected early 2018.
