Onshore oil and gas firm Angus Energy has announced that it could “establish commercial production” from its Balcombe-2z horizontal well.
The firm has today completed a seven-day flow test programme at the Balcombe exploration site in West Sussex.
Angus Energy said that it believes “based on the results of this 7-day flow test” it can isolate the “water producing zone and establish commercial production under normal pumped production conditions”.
The firm said it had initial expectations of 3,000 barrels of oil per day from the site, which “had to be reduced as it exceeded separator operating capacity”.
Fracking firm Cuadrilla put the expected barrel number at 1,587 per day.
Paul Vonk, managing director of Angus Energy stated: “We are obviously pleased with the results of the Balcombe-2z flow test and encouraged as we take our next steps towards producing from the Kimmeridge layers in the near future at the Brockham Field.
“This programme was successful because our team at Angus and our service providers maintained the highest standards, the most important of all being safe operations.”
Angus Energy joined the existing Cuadrilla / Lucas partnership through the acquisition of a 25.0% interest in UK onshore licence PEDL244, which includes the entire Balcombe Field discovery in West Sussex, earlier in 2018.
Francis Egan, CEO of Cuadrilla, said: “We are encouraged by the results from two initial flow tests of the Balcombe horizontal exploration well. Further analysis of the data collected will be carried out, and potentially further testing may be required, to finally determine the commercial potential for the site.”