The UK onshore oil and gas group Union Jack (ISDX:UJOP) said that operator Egdon Resources (LON:EDR) has been granted planning consent to drill the Wressle Prospect in North Lincolnshire.
Union Jack owns 8.33% of Wressle and Egdon with 25% is the operator. Celtique Energie and Europa Oil & Gas (LON:EOG) each have 33%.
Located east of Scunthorpe and on trend with the Warren oil field and the Broughton-B1 oil discovery, the target is estimated to be host to a prospective resource of 2.1mln barrels of crude.
Europa’s chief executive officer, Hugh Mackay, admitted this was relatively small compared to Europa’s Mullen and Kiernan prospects in the South Porcupine Basin, offshore Ireland, and Berenx, the deep gas appraisal project in onshore France.
“Nevertheless, drilling success at Wressle would generate considerable near term cash flow that we would reinvest into proving up and monetising other highly prospective exploration and appraisal projects in our portfolio,” Mackay said.
Wressle will be drilled as a deviated well to a total depth of about 2,300 metres.
It has been designed to intersect all of the sandstone reservoirs in and near the crest of the structure.
"Wressle-1 is the first of up to five wells to be drilled across our asset base over the next eighteen months, each of which has the potential to transform our existing production profile and reserves,” Mackay noted.
Shares in Europa were up 4.5% to 10.19p early doors on the news. Egdon Resources rose 1.5% to 9.51p.