A North Lincolnshire oil field is to enter full production next month after consent to store on site was secured alongside permission to optimise extraction.
Wressle Oil Field Development is looking to deliver 500 barrels a day, according to AIM-listed Egdon Resources Plc, the onshore exploration and production company behind it.
Part of a joint venture with Union Jack Oil and Europa Oil & Gas, Egdon owns a 30 per cent interest, covering operations, with 2,000 barrels storage capacity on site.
Mark Abbott, managing director, said: “We are pleased to have received this final consent, which will allow the full production potential of Wressle to be realised following the proppant squeeze operation which is planned to be undertaken during June 2021.”
Tests have indicated the possibility of recovering more than two million barrels of oil from the site, with three separate reservoirs.
Wressle has been on a 24 hour test production since late January with produced oil transported by road tanker to the nearby Phillips 66 Humber Refinery and sold under Egdon’s existing oil sales contract.
Mr Abbott said production rates “have continued to increase and have exceeded our expectations with high quality free flowing oil being produced and no water present”.
“We are delighted to have received all the required regulatory consents for the proppant squeeze operation at Wressle,” he added. “When successfully completed, this will realise the full potential from the Ashover Grit reservoir and is expected to increase Egdon’s net production at a time of increasingly strong oil prices leading to a step change in our cash flow.”
In previous documents released, Egdon has described a proppant squeeze as involving a slurry of sand and gelled water being pumped under pressure to create channels to enable oil flow.
Reassuring those concerned by the practice, the statement read: “This is a small-scale standard oilfield operation which historically has taken place elsewhere in Lincolnshire.
“It should not be confused with high volume hydraulic fracturing - fracking - that is proposed in other areas for shale gas or oil. This part of Lincolnshire does not have the specific rock formations that contain shale gas or oil. The area of rock that would be affected by this process extends in a radius of a few tens of metres from the wellbore.”
Hampshire-based Egdon secured consent in January 2020, at appeal, after being turned down three times by North Lincolnshire Council. The well site sits at Lodge Farm.
