Category: United Kingdom

Shell’s billion-dollar ambitions in arctic waters off the coast of Alaska in stark contract to industry peers. Photo by longtaildog/Shutterstock LONDON, April 13 (UPI) — Shell’s grab of energy giant BG Group and a legal victory for frontier work offshore Alaska leaves rivals in the dust, though environmentalist are unimpressed. The board of directors at Shell and BG group issued a joint statement last week saying they’ve reached an agreement for the Dutch acquisition of its British rival . A weekend editorial from The Telegraph newspaper in London said the grab is an "audacious" move in a "new wave of oil industry consolidation" that’s greeted a slump in oil prices that’s lasted nearly a year. The deal, valued at around $70 billion, is among the largest acquisitions since the Exxon Mobil merger was completed in 1999. For Shell, the acquisition may move the Dutch supermajor into the "pole position" […]

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Nutech Ltd. has upped estimates of total oil in place at the Horse Hill-1 (HH-1) well in the Weald basin of southern England to 158 million bbl/sq mile, excluding the previously reported Upper Portland Sandstone oil discovery . US analogues have estimated recovery factors of 3-15%, which may be produced using conventional technology. In a report to UK Oil & Gas Investments PLC (UKOG), which holds 20.36% interest in the 55-sq-miles Horse Hill licenses near Gatwick airport, Nutech says the oil lies within a 653-ft aggregate net pay section, primarily within three argillaceous limestones and interbedded mudstones of the Kimmeridge and the mudstones of the Oxford and Lias sections. About 72% of the oil in place—114 million bbl—lies within the Upper Jurassic Kimmeridge interbedded limestone and mudstone sequence. “Drilling the deepest well in the basin in 30 years, together with the ability to use concepts, techniques, and technology unavailable […]

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One of the largest oil discoveries in British history stirs fears of a major hydraulic fracturing campaign. Photo by David Gaylor/Shutterstock LONDON, April 10 (UPI) — With major oil deposits uncovered in England, an advocacy group said it was concerned about the pace of the fledgling shale industry in the country. U.K. Oil & Gas Investments announced there may be as much as 100 billion barrels of oil onshore in the Horse Hill license area of the Weald basin in southern England. "Appraisal drilling and well testing will be required to prove its commerciality, but this Weald hybrid play has the potential for significant daily oil production," UKOG Chief Executive Officer Stephen Sanderson said in a statement. The discovery comes as the country contemplates the future of North Sea production, where older fields are in a steady state of decline. Operating expenses in the North Sea are up 8 […]

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Pump jacks and wells in an oil field Sometimes one number is all that matters. In the case of the proposed takeover of BG Group by Royal Dutch Shell , that number is the oil price. In short, the success or failure of the blockbuster energy deal hinges on Shell’s long-term oil price assumptions for the transaction involving a range of $70 to $110 per barrel for Brent crude, according to some of Europe’s biggest investors. “The real issue is whether you believe the oil price will rise to $90 a barrel or not, which is in the middle of Shell’s range. If it rises to $90, then this deal becomes financially brilliant,” says Matthew Beesley, head of global equities at Henderson Global Investors, which holds shares in Shell and BG. “If the oil price rises to $70 dollars, then the deal is financially tolerable, but if it does […]

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Gatwick has promised to ‘bear all the main risks’ of an expansion programme A tiny UK oil explorer has claimed there could be up to 100bn barrels of oil beneath the home counties of southeast England, after drilling at a well near Gatwick airport. Shares in UK Oil & Gas Investments (UKOG), an Aim-traded oil exploration company, leapt 220 per cent on Thursday after it said that the Weald Basin held 158m barrels of oil per square mile, far outreaching previous government-funded estimates. UKOG claimed to have discovered a “world-class potential resource” in a 650ft section some 3,000 to 5,000ft below the ground after drilling into the Weald Basin at Horse Hill in Surrey. However, industry analysts were sceptical about the company’s claims and how much oil could be economically recovered from the area. David Lenigas , chairman of UKOG, extrapolated that the whole basin could contain “multiple billion […]

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LONDON (Reuters) – There could be up to 100 billion barrels of oil onshore beneath southern England, the chief executive of a small exploration firm told the BBC in an interview on Thursday. To which the correct response is "yes, but". Based on an analysis of samples from a single well drilled near London’s Gatwick airport, UK Oil and Gas Investments estimates there could be 158 million barrels per square mile in the local area. Horse Hill, where the well was drilled, is part of the Weald Basin, which stretches across large parts of the counties of Dorset, Hampshire, West and East Sussex, and Surrey, as well as parts of neighboring Wiltshire and Kent. Scaled up across the whole of the basin, there could be 50-100 billion barrels of oil, though only 3-15 percent might be technically recoverable, the firm admitted ("Oil discovery near Gatwick airport significant" April 9). […]

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ENLARGE Shell logos are pictured on fuel pumps at a petrol station in west London on Jan. 29. Analysts said on Wednesday that the company’s $70 billion bid for Britain’s BG Group could prompt a new wave of mergers in the oil sector. Photo: Reuters LONDON— Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s nearly $70 billion offer for Britain’s BG Group PLC may be the starting gun for a wave of oil deals that analysts and bankers have been predicting since crude prices started to slump in June. “This could mark the beginning of a M&A rave, much like the one we saw in the late 1990s,” Augustin Eden, research analyst at Accendo Markets, said in a note. BG, with a market cap of about $46 billion, is likely the largest of the potential prey: small, midsize oil-and-gas companies that have been punished by oil prices that have halved over the past […]

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LONDON (Reuters) – A small oil find near London’s Gatwick airport contains much more oil than first estimated, an independent report commissioned by the field’s developers said on Thursday. London-listed UK Oil & Gas Investments said the report estimated 158 million barrels per square mile could be lying below the site just north of Britain’s second-largest airport, much more than first thought. UKOG, the main investor in the project with a 30 percent interest, said the field could produce significant daily amounts of oil if retrieving it proves commercially viable. "The operator …is now focused on flow testing the Portland Sandstone and Kimmeridge Limestone sections of the well, to establish producibility and thereby seeking to quantify an overall net discovered resource," UKOG Chief Executive Stephen Sanderson said in a statement. The oil find is located in Britain’s resource-rich southern Weald Basin, adjacent to an area where one of Europe’s […]

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