Project Profile

Location: Wessex Basin, offshore Southern England, adjacent to the Dorset coast, UK
Area: 584 square kilometres
Reserves: 100 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas recoverable
Water Depth: 2,500 metres

The P1918 licence is located in Wessex Basin, offshore Southern England, adjacent to the Dorset coast. InfraStrata is the operator of the licence and holds 70% direct interest, with an additional interest via a shareholding in partner company Corfe Energy Limited (20%), while Nautical Petroleum plc holds the remaining 10%. The license covers an area of 584 square kilometres. The licence includes three offshore Blocks 97/14, 97/15 and 98/11, covering an area adjacent to the Dorset coast close to the giant Wytch Farm oilfield. The licence has an initial licence term of four years from 1 February 2012, with a decision on drilling a well required within the first two years. A total of seven wells have previously been drilled within the licence area, including the first UK offshore well in 1963 on Lulworth Banks. Six of these wells encountered oil or gas shows and three flowed oil or gas on test. Within and immediately adjacent to the licence area there are also a number of active oil and gas seeps. The InfraStrata led joint venture has purchased approximately 3,500 kilometres of existing 2D seismic data, and three existing 3D surveys, within or adjacent to the licence. The advances in technology and higher petroleum prices mean that the licensees are hopeful of being able to develop one of the existing discoveries profitably as a base from which to appraise the full potential of the area.

During October-November 2012, this data has been interpreted by Geosolutions Limited on behalf of the group. The focus has been on the offshore extension of the Purbeck Prospect, an anticline in the east of the licence, up dip of the onshore well Southard Quarry-1, which encountered petroleum in Jurassic and Triassic reservoirs during 1989 but which was not tested. The new mapping of the Purbeck Prospect shows it covering an area of approximately 13 square kilometres at the primary target level, the majority within the P1918 licence. An initial estimate of the prospective resources, by the joint venture partners, for the primary reservoir objective, the Triassic Sherwood Sandstone, is approximately 100 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas recoverable. An appraisal well is now required to test the productivity of the reservoir at a depth of approximately 2,500 metres below ground level. The well will also be designed to evaluate two Jurassic reservoirs where oil was encountered in the Southard Quarry-1 well. InfraStrata is now going to reprocess approximately 250 kilometres of 2D seismic data to further define the sub-surface target location for a new appraisal well. It is proposed to drill the well directionally from an onshore location to the offshore within Block 98/11 of licence P1918. The joint venture intends to submit a planning application in Q1 2013, and it is anticipated that the first appraisal well will commence drilling before the end of 2013, subject to consents and funding. Further technical work will be undertaken to refine the prospect inventory in both exploration projects and the Company propose to commission a Competent Persons Report on completion of this work during the first half of 2013.

Operators:

Osmington Holdings Limited (Osmington) (a wholly owned subsidiary of Corallian): Operator with 70% interest

Corfe Energy Limited: 20% interest

Cairn Energy : 10% interest


Contractors:

Geosolutions Limited: Interpretation of seismic data