United Oil shares jump on latest Abu Sennan drilling

United Oil & Gas updated the market on the drilling of the ASH-4 development well in the Abu Sennan licence, onshore Egypt on Friday, where it holds a 22% non-operating interest in the licence operated by Kuwait Energy Egypt.

The AIM-traded company said ASH-4 spudded on 10 September, and reached a depth of 3,956 metres on 24 October, in line with the pre-drill schedule and under budget.

It said the well was drilled as a step-out development well into the ASH field.

Initial logs were acquired through the primary AEB reservoir target, with net pay estimated at 20 metres.

The well was expected to reach total depth in the coming days, after which it would be tested and completed.

It was then expected to be immediately brought onstream through the existing ASH facilities.

On completion, the ST-1 rig would move to the ASW-1X location, previously named ASF-1X, to start drilling the “high-impact” exploration well, targeting around eight million barrels of gross recoverable resources.

“The ASH-4 well result marks a successful return to drilling on a prolific area of the Abu Sennan licence,” said chief executive officer Brian Larkin.

“Based on the initial petrophysical interpretation we expect that this well will deliver a material increase to current production levels.”

Larkin said the updated technical information from the well, and the three other producing ASH wells coupled with the reprocessed seismic, was expected to further enhance the understanding of the field, which would support the optimisation of the recovery of the material reserves and value.

“This provides further encouragement for the forthcoming exploration well and the remainder of our 2022 work programme.”

At 1316 BST, shares in United Oil & Gas were up 11.11% at 1,75p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.