Independent Oil and Gas (IOG) will carry out further analysis and modelling to work out whether its Redwell and Harvey assets in the southern North Sea are worth developing.
London-listed IOG completed appraisal drilling on Harvey in September and confirmed the presence of the 49ft gas column. It had been targeting pre-drill estimates of 211ft.
The company said today that the column appeared to be “sub-commercial”.
But IOG said a larger structure had been detected on Harvey to the north-east of an earlier well. It could yield 40 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas, though further technical work will be required to firm up that number.
Meanwhile, the well results were combined with seismic data covering the nearby Redwell discovery.
It shows that Redwell extends further to the north-west than previously thought, incorporating both the Redwell discovery and Woodforde prospect.
IOG believes these assets could yield 100 bcf.
Further modelling work will be undertaken to determine whether there is scope for a development in the Redwell-Harvey area, via a tie-in to the Thames Pipeline or to Core Project infrastructure such as the Southwark or Blythe platforms.