North York Moors National Park Authority has given Egdon Resources permission to drill an exploration well near the village of Westerdale in the PEDL068 license area.
The Westerdale-2 well is planned to evaluate the Ralph Cross/Westerdale gas discovery in an area up-dip of the Ralph Cross-1 well that was drilled in 1966, and flowed gas from fractured limestone.
Company evaluations have indicated the potential for 5-38billioncu.ft of gas in place, with a most likely case of around 18bcf. Egdon did drill a well in the Westerdale area in 2006 but failed to find commercial gas.