Angus Energy plc will restart testing the existing Balcombe well site in West Sussex after the High Court dismissed a judicial review from objectors.
PARTNERS
The Balcombe-2Z well was drilled almost a decade ago and in November 2018 the company as operator conducted a short-term, inconclusive test.
Project partners of PEDL244 at the time comprised Angus with a 25% interest; shale gas company Cuadrilla Balcombe Ltd, 56.25%; and Lucas Bolney Ltd, 18.75%.
AJ Lucas now owns 96% of Cuadrilla giving the Australian miner an effective 72.75% interest, and is itself 65% owned by private equity fund manager Kerogen Investments in Hong Kong.
Angus said it was in discussions with the 75% majority partner regarding its interest and the work programme over the project’s stages.
HYDRAULIC FRACTURING
Protesters have raised concerns about hydraulic fracturing at the site which lies 8km southeast of Crawley near the village of Balcombe.
“Testing operations can now be restarted according to normal oilfield practice to determine the commercial viability of the discovery,” said Angus today.
The company added that in the 40 years of the site’s existence “there has never been any hydraulic fracturing either proposed or employed”.
“The Kimmeridge reservoir at Balcombe is presently an unknown quantity, and now we are able to conduct the necessary flow testing to determine the potential to flow at commercial rates,” added chief executive Richard Herbert.
“We remain most mindful of the concerns of local residents in our common pursuit, in a safe and responsible manner, of a diverse source of domestically-sourced energy as against higher carbon footprint imports.”
BALCOMBE
Conoco first drilled the discovery well Balcombe-1 in 1986 and subsequent operator Cuadrilla drilled Balcombe-2 and its side track Balcombe-2Z to a vertical depth of 2,200ft and horizontally to 1,714ft.
In January 2018 Angus acquired 25% of the project and became the operator.
In 2020 it submitted revised plans for an extended well test which West Sussex County Council refused leading Angus to appeal in 2021 and win in 2023.
The company states that Balcombe is considered to be in the ‘sweet spot’ of the Weald basin “given the 568m thickness and highest maturity of the Kimmeridge layers”.
The company’s regional work established that the Kimmeridge micrite layers encountered at Balcombe can be correlated across to the Brockham and Horse Hill oil fields.