Hardstoft – UK Onshore
Upland has a 25% interest in Block SK46c. This acreage is located in the East Midlands Oil Province, in pink below, where numerous discoveries have been made, particularly since the early 1980s.
SK46c is especially appealing as it includes the opportunity to rejuvenate Hardstoft Oil Field, circled below, found by the first ever oil discovery well in the UK in 1919. Hardstoft produced oil through the old, simple vertical well without water for five years. The current plan is to drill a modern low cost, low risk deviated development well on Hardstoft Field and access potential reserves over a far larger area of the field than the old wells. The Hardstoft East prospect, directly adjacent to Hardstoft Field, represents substantial upside to existing resources through a second well. Recent remapping by Independent consultant Blackwatch Petroleum Services Ltd indicates that all of Hardstoft East and the vast majority of Hardstoft Field lie within our SK46c block.
The Carboniferous limestone reservoirs of Hardstoft and Hardstoft East are believed to be naturally fractured, so should not require “fracking”. Deviated wells should cross many of these near-vertical fractures, which can act as high permeability production pathways. New seismic data will be acquired to identify the best well locations.
Blackwatch estimates that the chance of success for Hardstoft Field is 80%, and 64% for Hardstoft East. These are highly attractive
Upland is partnered with Ineos (operator), a large energy conglomerate with substantial financial resources and Europa Oil & Gas, a UK independent with extensive operating experience in the East Midlands Basin.
The non-Ineos partners in Block SK46c, which also includes private company, will focus solely on the conventional oil opportunities on the acreage.
Blackwatch estimates that total recoverable resources on Hardstoft are 6.75 million barrels of oil on a best, or base, case scenario (1.125 mmbbls net to Upland).
The low cost nature of the Hardstoft development means that it is expected to be highly economically robust. It should be value accretive at oil prices somewhat below $30 per barrel and very attractive at higher oil prices.
In addition to the Lower Carboniferous limestones of Hardstoft the block also has potential for younger Namurian and Westphalian sandstone reservoirs – these are the traditional oil & gas plays in this area.
