Work has begun on opening up a potentially major UK onshore oil and gas find in the shadow of Gatwick Airport – after oil giants Esso missed the field 50 years ago.
The Horse Hill site, in the Weald Basin, sits just 3KM from the airport, and is thought to contain up to 87million barrels of oil and a further 164billion cubic feet of gas.
Attempts by Esso to explore the site 50 years ago revealed good oil prospects, but new tests have been carried out to further reveal the true potential of the site after it emerged Esso drilled the wrong side of the fault.
“Horse Hill has significant potential to discover oil, especially after the results of Esso in the 1960’s, but the company particularly excited about the potentially of locating significant convention gas deeper down the Horse Hill-1 well in the Triassic,” said David Lenigas, chairman of site partners UK Oil and Gas.
Work on the Horse Hill Development-owned site is expected to be completed by the end of August, with an initial 2646m well to test the targets.
“Whilst the potential of the Horse Hill prospect has been recognised for some time it is only the recent receipt of planning permission and other associated approvals that provides impetus to the project,” said Neil Ritson, of partners Solo Oil.
“The news that the site preparation is now underway is a further endorsement of the HHDL team and their ability to drill this well later in the year.”
