TIDMALBA
RNS Number : 0850X
Alba Mineral Resources PLC
26 August 2015
26 August 2015
Alba Mineral Resources plc
("Alba" or the "Company")
Schlumberger Independent Assessment of Horse Hill Licence
Area
The Board of Alba Mineral Resources plc (AIM: ALBA) announces
that a mean Oil in Place ("OIP") of 10.993 billion barrels has been
independently calculated by Schlumberger to lie within the 55
square miles of the PEDL137 and PEDL246 Horse Hill licences ("the
Licence Area") in the Weald Basin, located in the South East of
England. Alba has a net attributable interest of 6.5% in the
Licence Area.
The tight Jurassic limestones and shales of the Kimmeridge Clay
Formation in the Licence Area are calculated to contain a total OIP
of 8.262 billion barrels, with the shales of the Oxford Clay and
Lias Formations containing an aggregate OIP of 2.731 billion
barrels, as shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Licence Area mean OIP estimates, millions of barrels
("MMBO")
Formation Mean OIP (MMBO)
----------------- ----------------
Kimmeridge Clay 8,262
Oxford Clay 1,017
Lias 1,714
----------------- ----------------
TOTAL 10,993
----------------- ----------------
Schlumberger acquired the Horse Hill-1 well ("HH-1") electric
logs during the drilling of HH-1. This analysis builds on their
previous petrophysical evaluation of HH-1, located in PEDL137 near
to London Gatwick Airport, as announced on 5 June 2015. In that
previous HH-1 analysis, a total mean OIP, excluding the Upper
Portland sandstone oil discovery, of 255 million barrels of oil per
square mile was calculated. The current report incorporates the
analysis of a further nine wells located within and beyond the
Licence Area.
It should be noted, as previously reported, that the HH-1 Upper
Portland sandstone oil discovery is a geologically separate oil
accumulation from, and additional to, the identified underlying
Jurassic tight oil plays.
As previously stated by the Company, the above estimated OIP
hydrocarbon volumes should not be construed as recoverable
resources or reserves and also should not be construed in any way
to reflect potential producibility of hydrocarbons from the
formations evaluated. The Company would expect to report estimated
recoverable resources following a successful well flow test, in
order to comply with the standards of the Society of Petroleum
Engineers' 2007 Petroleum Resources Management System.
The report's findings will now be integrated into the planned
flow test of HH-1 expected later this year, subject to approval by
the Environment Agency. This is another key step in the proof of
concept process for Jurassic tight oil and the Kimmeridge limestone
reservoirs in particular.
Additional internal and external technical studies are now well
advanced in order to fully understand the possible implications of
the report's key findings upon the hydrocarbon potential of the
Weald Basin.
Mike Nott, Alba's CEO, commented:
"Schlumberger's report for the HH licences has calculated OIP
19% higher than Nutech's equivalent OIP estimate. These two
specialist companies have therefore independently confirmed the
significance of the tight oil Jurassic resource play in the Weald
Basin. As with Nutech's analysis, Schlumberger used a number of
wells in the Weald Basin in deriving their estimate. Alba looks
forward to moving ahead with the planned Horse Hill-1 flow
test."
Future Plans:
In parallel with its subsurface and HH-1 flow test studies for
the Portland sandstone and underlying tight Jurassic oil zones,
related engineering and environmental studies have been
commissioned to investigate a conceptual Weald Jurassic field
development, with the prime objective that it must respect and
preserve the rural beauty and way of life of the area, with minimal
environmental impact, while at the same time providing a valuable
contribution to the area's economy.
Alba's interest in the Licence Area and Horse Hill:
The Licence Area, comprising licences PEDL137 and PEDL246, is
located on the northern side of the Weald Basin of South East
England near Gatwick Airport. The HH-1 discovery well is located in
PEDL137. Alba owns a 10% direct interest in Horse Hill Developments
Ltd ("HHDL"). HHDL is a special purpose company that owns a 65%
participating interest and is the operator of the Licence Area. The
remaining 35% participating interest in the Licence Area is held by
Magellan Petroleum Corporation.
Qualified Person's Statement:
Stephen Sanderson, who has over 30 years of relevant experience
in the oil industry, has approved the information contained in this
announcement on behalf of Alba. Mr Sanderson is a Fellow of the
Geological Society of London and is an active member of the
American Association of Petroleum Geologists.
For further information please contact:
Alba Mineral Resources
plc
Michael Nott, CEO +44 20 3696 4616
Cairn Financial Advisers
LLP
Avi Robinson / James Caithie +44 20 7148 7900
Dowgate Capital Stockbrokers
Limited
Jason Robertson / Neil
Badger +44 1293 517744
Glossary:
discovery a discovery is a petroleum accumulation
for which one or several exploratory
wells have established through testing,
sampling and/or logging the existence
of a significant quantity of potentially
moveable hydrocarbons
------------------- -----------------------------------------------
electric logs tools used within the wellbore to
measure the rock and fluid properties
of surrounding rock formations
------------------- -----------------------------------------------
flow test a flow test or well test involves
testing a well by flowing hydrocarbons
to surface, typically through a
test separator. Key measured parameters
are oil and gas flow rates, downhole
pressure and surface pressure. The
overall objective is to identify
the well's capacity to produce hydrocarbons
at a commercial flow rate
------------------- -----------------------------------------------
limestone a sedimentary rock predominantly
composed of calcite (a crystalline
mineral form of calcium carbonate)
of organic, chemical or detrital
origin. Minor amounts of dolomite,
chert and clay are common in limestones.
Chalk is a form of fine-grained
limestone
------------------- -----------------------------------------------
mean or expected value, is the probability-weighted
average of all possible values and
is a measure of the central tendency
either of a probability distribution
or of the random variable characterised
by that distribution
------------------- -----------------------------------------------
oil in place the quantity of oil or petroleum
that is estimated to exist originally
in naturally occurring accumulations
before any extraction or production
------------------- -----------------------------------------------
petrophysics the study of physical and chemical
rock properties and their interactions
with fluids utilising electric logs,
physical rock and fluid measurements
------------------- -----------------------------------------------
play a set of known or postulated oil
and or gas accumulations sharing
similar geologic, geographic, and
temporal properties, such as source
rock, migration pathways, timing,
trapping mechanism, and hydrocarbon
type
------------------- -----------------------------------------------
recoverable those quantities of petroleum (oil
resources in this case) estimated, as of a
given date, to be potentially recoverable
from known accumulations
------------------- -----------------------------------------------
reserves those quantities of petroleum anticipated
to be commercially recoverable by
application of development projects
to known accumulations from a given
date forward under defined conditions;
reserves must further satisfy four
criteria: they must be discovered,
recoverable, commercial and remaining
(as of the evaluation date) based
on the development project(s) applied;
reserves are further categorized
in accordance with the level of
certainty associated with the estimates
and may be sub-classified based
on project maturity and/or characterised
by development and production status
------------------- -----------------------------------------------
reservoir a subsurface rock formation containing
an individual natural accumulation
of moveable petroleum
------------------- -----------------------------------------------
sandstone a clastic sedimentary rock whose
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