Prospects potentially similar to the giant Wytch Farm oil field in southern England are to be explored by Wessex Exploration after it signed a licence agreement.
Wessex, with its partner – a subsidiary of Australian stock-exchange listed Norwest Energy – has been granted licence P1928 by the Department of Energy and Climate Change under a promote licence arrangement.
Wessex said the licence, offshore the Hampshire and Isle of Wight coasts, contains the “very interesting Steelhead and Beluga leads, easily accessible to explore with slightly deviated exploratory wells based onshore”.
“In addition, there are several small fault block leads in line with and off the eastern end of Wytch Farm oil field,” it said.
“Technical work done to date suggests that a large volume of generated oil previously trapped in the Wytch Farm structure, could have re-migrated a short distance into the area of the Steelhead and Beluga leads.”
Frederik Dekker, managing director, said: “P1928 is an area we have studied for several years and which we consider has great potential for hydrocarbon accumulations similar to, but smaller than the giant Wytch Farm.
“We fully intend to pursue an aggressive exploration programme on the acreage in a conventional manner, and alive to the fact that much of P1928 sits within areas of outstanding natural beauty.”
A statement from Wessex earlier this year said it believes the acreage could contain at least six different structural leads with a geological chance of success ranging from 15% to 32%.
The initial work commitment of the licence will be the purchase and reprocessing of some existing legacy seismic data and acquisition of 27 sq miles of new 2D seismic data.
The area lies between the firm’s existing onshore licences PEDL’s 238 and 239, and just east of Wytch Farm oil field.
Wessex has been working on plans to drill on its Razorback prospect in PEDL 239.
Wessex has 35% equity and working interest in P1928, and a subsidiary of Australian stock exchange listed Norwest Energy is the operator of the licence with 65% equity and working interest.