24th Jun 2015 07:59
LONDON (Alliance News) - UK Oil and Gas Investments PLC Wednesday said its pretax loss widened in the first half of the year and said it plans to flow test part of the Horse Hill discovery before the end of the year and expects to secure further opportunities in the UK.
The company reported a GBP383,000 pretax loss in the six months ended March 31, widening from a GBP290,000 loss a year earlier after administration costs rose to GBP491,000 from GBP290,000. That cost rise was partially offset by UK Oil's maiden revenue of GBP197,000.
UK Oil's main project is the Horse Hill prospect near Gatwick Airport, Sussex. The company said it plans to test the commercial viability of the Portland conventional oil discovery at the project before the end of 2015, which will be part of broader work programme to prove the project's viability.
The Upper Portland Sandstone of the Horse Hill-1 well and Collendean Farm-1 discoveries contains a best estimate, or P50 oil in place, of 21 million barrels.
The P50 estimate for the total Jurassic shale plus tight conventional reservoir section in the Horse Hill licenses, excluding the Upper Portland sandstone estimate, now stands at 9.24 billion barrels of oil in place, of which 5.23 billion barrels is located in the Kimmeridge section.
Away from Horse Hill, the company expects to review the potential to appraise and develop the Markwells Wood oil discovery in the UK, which it wholly-owns and operates. UK Oil also is expecting to be awarded further licenses under the UK 12th licensing round after it applied for an additional 200 kilometres of onshore acreage on the Isle of Wight.
The company said it plans to expand its licence position in the UK onshore with additional exploration, development and production investments.
"The company is now well-financed following its recent GBP6 million share placement and USD10 million debt facility with YA Global Master. Strong funding combined with significant technical knowledge of both the Weald and the isle of Wight means we are well positioned to achieve a goal of expanding our portfolio by the end of the next period," said Chairman David Lenigas.
Earlier this month, UK Oil raised GBP6.0 million from a placing led by WH Ireland Ltd of over 266.7 million new shares in the company at 2.25 pence.
UK Oil shares were down 0.8% to 2.23p per share on Wednesday morning.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
UK Oil & Gas