Commencement of Drilling on the Verbier Prospect
Monday 14 August 2017
Jersey Oil & Gas (AIM: JOG), an independent upstream oil and gas company focused on the UK Continental Shelf ("UKCS") region of the North Sea, is pleased to announce that drilling operations have commenced on well 20/05b-13 on UK Seaward Licence P.2170, Blocks 20/5b & 21/1d (the "P.2170 Licence") (the "Exploration Well"). Drilling of the Exploration Well will test the Verbier prospect, located within the P.2170 Licence area, using the semi-submersible rig Transocean Spitsbergen.
The drilling programme which, depending on the results of the initial well, may include a side-track well, is expected to take up to 70 days.
Statoil (U.K.) Limited ("Statoil"), operator of the P.2170 Licence, will fund all costs up to US$25 million in respect of the Exploration Well. JOG also benefits from a further cash carry of 10 per cent. of well costs from its co-venturer CIECO Exploration and Production (UK) Limited ("CIECO").
The co-venturers in the P.2170 Licence and their respective interests are: Statoil 70%, JOG 18% and CIECO 12%.
Andrew Benitz, CEO of Jersey Oil & Gas, commented:
"We are pleased to announce that drilling operations on the Verbier prospect have now commenced. The Verbier prospect is estimated to have mean prospective resources of 162MMBOE and has the potential to add considerable value to our joint venture partnership."
Ron Lansdell, COO of Jersey Oil & Gas, commented:
"The drilling of the Verbier prospect is the culmination of several years of hard and creative work by the joint venture partnership. The P.2170 Licence was previously operated by Jersey Oil & Gas alongside CIECO, and we significantly de-risked the prospect prior to negotiating the farm-out to Statoil, the current operator. Success at Verbier could provide significant impetus for potential future exploration of the neighbouring Cortina prospect within the P.2170 Licence area."