The company explores and develops gas and oil reserves at onshore locations in the northwest of England, in north Wales, in the East Midlands and in southern England.
With almost a decade of experience in onshore drilling, IGas is able to exploit prolific and lower-cost hydrocarbon reserves which contribute to Britain’s energy security while at the same time delivering value to IGas investors.
IGas Energy finds ‘very significant’ shale gas in Cheshire
IGas Energy (LON:IGAS) today announced that an exploration well has found a ‘very significant’ area of shale gas at the Ince Marshes site in Cheshire.
A shale section of at least 1,000 feet was found in the well. At target depth the well was still in the shale section, it said.
Gas indications were observed across the interval and it has identified a number of potentially prospective zones.
Chief executive Andrew Austin says he is very encouraged by the discovery of shale gas at Ince Marshes. He added that the shale interval exceeds what the firm had been expecting.
According to IGas, this area is part of the Bowland shale. IGas said that previous independent analysis of the Ince Marshes site suggested gas in place volumes of up to 4.6 trillion cubic feet.
In a shallower section of the Ince Marshes well, multiple coal bed methane (CBM) seams were also encountered, with 36 feet of net coal thickness. The well data is now being analysed for both the CBM and shale intervals.
Meanwhile at the Doe Green CBM project in Cheshire IGas has completed the ‘in-coal’ drilling phase for two new wells, DG-3 and DG-4.
The firm expects to start work on the production completion operations, which includes de-watering, for the two wells in the coming days. After that the wells will be tested.
Indicative flow rates are expected before the end of March.
IGas said it now has over 3,500 metres of lateral exposure to CBM seams in three wells. The DG-2 well already gave the firm 1,000 feet of exposure. Now the DG-3 well has added 1,500 feet of exposure and the DG-4 well added 1,000 feet.
The greater surface area exposed to CBM seams provides greater production potential.
The company said that the DG-4 well was in an area that was more faulted than it had anticipated, particularly in the deeper seams. This meant that drilling was more complicated and it took longer, however as a result of the seams-faulted nature IGas encountered higher levels of gas than in previous wells.
Doe Green and the coal bed methane portfolio have been the firm’s main focus in recent years. But following the recent acquisition of Star Energy and the growing interest in UK shale plays there is greater diversity to the business.
The Star acquisition added producing onshore oil assets to the IGas portfolio. This morning the company said that the integration of the new business is going smoothly.
Altogether production from all the group’s assets is currently 15 per cent ahead of forecasts, at a rate of 2,700 barrels a day. This is mainly made up of oil production, with it contributing 2,600 barrels a day. The rest is gas.
IGas said that around 1,500 barrels a day is currently hedged at a price of $93.4 per barrel, while the balance is currently being sold at more that US$106 a barrel.
"We are pleased to announce that we have completed the coal drilling phase at Doe Green and that we have seen strong performance from the production assets following the completion of our acquisition of Star Energy,” Austin said.
