Most significant on-shore oil find in the UK for 30 years

chewmylegoff

I only noticed today that this is a David Lenigas company on AIM and the ownership of the underlying asset is carved up in a hilariously convoluted manner. Personally I would take the announcement with an enormous pinch of salt by knocking a few (say 8-9) noughts off the company's estimates.

There is a funny piece in today's times attributing the size of the discovery to Lenigas finding the multiplication button on a calculator...

tberry6686

The claim of 1bn bbl is not that surprising really, considering they are talking about a very large part of England being included - all that is near Gatwick is the discovery well. But when you look a little more into it recovery factor is pretty poor (but will improve massively when they start Fracking, yes, I know they have said they won't need to but later in the production cycle they will have to)

They claim the reservoir is shale and naturally fractured Limestones so is fairly similar to the US shale gas/oil reserves, even with fracing these are only economical with the oil price above $50 bbl and so are actually more expensive to produce than almost all North Sea fields. Production rates will be relatively slow <1000 bbl/day (at best) compared with typical North sea production rates of 5-10,000 bbl/day. Due to the structure of the rock far more wells will be required to drain the field than are required for conventional reservoirs, just like the US shale plays.

All in all it is a good news story but has been blown vastly out of proportion by the media.

Sapphire

Well, I live in 'that part of the world', but don't even own a car (if that is what a 'Beemer SUV' is). There are plenty of others like me.

The fact that there are some middle-aged people of the type that you describe living in Surrey who have double standards doesn't detract from the fact that it would be wrong to extract oil from already overly exploited countryside that should be protected – and that many people who object to such exploitation are not of the type you describe.

Generali wrote: »

Lots of people including me care about the environment.

Lots of middle aged people in that part of the world care that people don't dig up oil near them but care passionately about filling the Beemer SUV.

Generali

I remember many times during my childhood in The Weald that any attempt to build a house was met with immense opposition by people that suddenly discovered a Green ideology when it suited preventing some development. Of course once yet another poor developer had been prevented from building some houses that the area desperately needed and the locals could go back to voting Tory, safe in the knowledge that their children would never be able to afford to live within 50 miles of them.

cells

tberry6686 wrote: »

The claim of 1bn bbl is not that surprising really, considering they are talking about a very large part of England being included - all that is near Gatwick is the discovery well. But when you look a little more into it recovery factor is pretty poor (but will improve massively when they start Fracking, yes, I know they have said they won't need to but later in the production cycle they will have to)

They claim the reservoir is shale and naturally fractured Limestones so is fairly similar to the US shale gas/oil reserves, even with fracing these are only economical with the oil price above $50 bbl and so are actually more expensive to produce than almost all North Sea fields. Production rates will be relatively slow <1000 bbl/day (at best) compared with typical North sea production rates of 5-10,000 bbl/day. Due to the structure of the rock far more wells will be required to drain the field than are required for conventional reservoirs, just like the US shale plays.

All in all it is a good news story but has been blown vastly out of proportion by the media.

Shale production is lower than offshore conventional but if the yanks are anything to go by setting up a well will cost $5m. Twenty wells at $100m is a dam lot cheaper than an offshore oil rig at a billion dollars (not to mention much quicker to do and lower risk)

tkane

Sapphire wrote: »

....it would be wrong to extract oil from already overly exploited countryside that should be protected.

Overly exploited countryside? Only about 7% of all land in the UK is urbanised.

Of that 7%, 70% is devoted to green space and domestic gardens.

The BBC reckons only 2% of UK land makes up the built environment.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18623096

So yes, our countryside is overly exploited

antrobus

tkane wrote: »

Overly exploited countryside? Only about 7% of all land in the UK is urbanised. ...

Yes, but one-third of that land is Scotland.:)

Sapphire wrote: »

...The fact that there are some middle-aged people of the type that you describe living in Surrey who have double standards doesn't detract from the fact that it would be wrong to extract oil from already overly exploited countryside that should be protected – and that many people who object to such exploitation are not of the type you describe.

I'm not convinced that drilling a hole in the ground to get at some oil a few thousand feet below represents an 'exploitation' of the 'countryside'.

I can recall watching one of Portillo's Great British Railway Journeys that featured one of the UK's onshore oil wells operating down at Wytch Farm. It's located in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, but you wouldn't know it was there, unless you went looking for it.

elantan

setmefree2 wrote: »

Do you want to be cold?

Energy security and shale development have not become issues in the current General Election campaign, mostly because of milder temperatures this winter. Last fall, with Russia jawboning to reduce gas flowing through the Ukraine, a cold winter could have led to shortages, and energy independence would certainly have propelled up the political agenda. "The UK is at the end of a very long pipeline and only has two weeks of storage capacity if anything goes wrong," Faulkner says.

http://www.youroilandgasnews.com/breitling+energy+corporation%3A+why+current+energy+prices+will+not+impact+uk+shale+potential_114848.html

I've got a couple of wood burning stoves, I wont be cold

Generali

elantan wrote: »

I've got a couple of wood burning stoves, I wont be cold

Typical Nationalist attitude: don't give a damn for the rest, I'm Alright Jack.

elantan

Generali wrote: »

Typical Nationalist attitude: don't give a damn for the rest, I'm Alright Jack.

HA HA HA HA HA I did wonder who would fall for it... I am not disappointed thank you :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: