Longboat Energy upbeat on drilling at OMV licence

Emerging explorer and producer Longboat Energy announced the encounter of hydrocarbons in the OMV-operated exploration well 30/5-4S on Friday, where it has a 20% interest.

The AIM-traded firm said a decision had been taken to drill a sidetrack well, and perform a drill stem test.

It said the exploration well was drilled to a depth of 5,003 metres, targeting the Tarbert and Ness formations.

“Extensive” coring and logging data was acquired, and the preliminary analysis indicated “excellent” correlation with the nearby Tune field, as well as the presence of gas-condensate in the Tarbert formation.

It added that the presence of hydrocarbons in the deeper Ness formation was inconclusive at the well location, although preliminary gas in-place volumes in the Tarbert formation were higher than the overall pre-drill expectations.

Longboat said based on the positive indications to-date and the challenges collecting a full suite of downhole dynamic data from the existing well-bore, a decision was taken by the joint venture to drill a sidetrack well and perform a drill stem test.

The key objectives of the test would be to establish reservoir productivity, detailed fluid properties and determine the range of recoverable resources.

Licence PL1100 is operated by OMV Norge with a 40% interest, with the other partners including WintershallDEA Norge at 20%, Source Energy at 20%, and Longboat Energy Norge at 20%.

“We are very pleased to have encountered hydrocarbons in the Oswig exploration well, the first of two wells we farmed-into from OMV,” said chief executive officer Helge Hammer.

“We now look forward to working with the operator on the sidetrack and drill stem test, and to making the final well result announcement in due course.”

At 1255 BST, shares in Longboat Energy were up 1.18% at 43p.

Reporting by Josh White at Sharecast.com.