Gatwick's Horse Hill oil well flows naturally

Oil has continued to flow naturally from a discovery well near Gatwick Airport owned by a consortium of oil exploration companies, with the first two tankers of crude sent for refining.

Following the announcement of Monday's initial flow using water, UK Oil & Gas (UKOG) said operator Horse Hill Developments had recorded a steady flow of light, sweet crude of slightly more than 456 barrels of oil per day over a 9.5-hour period on Tuesday, consisting of dry oil with zero water.

Horse Hill Developments, in which UKOG and fellow AIM-listed peers Alba Mineral Resources, Doriemus, Solo Oil, Stellar Resources and Evocutis have stakes, used a smaller choke in order to further stabilise the flow.

"The well continues to produce high quality oil at good rates," said Stephen Sanderson, UKOG's executive chairman.

"Although further work is required to be done, we are now beginning to establish the commerciality of the project earlier than originally anticipated. The first two tankers full with 348 barrels of oil were sent to be refined at noon yesterday."

The Horse Hill-1 discovery well is located in the PEDL137 licence in Surrey's Weald Basin near Gatwick Airport.

UKOG has a 20.16% stake in the PEDL137 licence, with other stakes ranging from Alba's 9.75%, to Doriemus, Solo Oil, Stellar Resources all with 6.5% each, while Evocutis owns a 1.3% interest.

The drilling exercise has attracted protesters concerned that the companies may employ controversial fracking techniques.

On Tuesday, while the Horse Hill Protection Group (HHPG), which opposes drilling at the site, collected samples from what it said was a plastic outflow pipe from the site, some locals living near the well were reported to have complained to the Environment Agency about smells during flow tests yesterday.

But Sanderson, who has claimed the entire Weald Basin could contain up to 124bn barrels of oil, has strenuously denied that fracking techniques will be needed to extract the oil.

Once the current testing of the Lower Kimmeridge limestone belt is completed by the HH-1 well, the next phases of the drilling operation will move to the shallower Upper Kimmeridge limestone and Portland sandstone zones at approximately 840 and 615 metres below ground level.