IOG expands Vulcan Satellites development with new license

UK-based Independent Oil and Gas (IOG), a development and production focused oil and gas company, has been awarded a new license by the UK Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) comprising Block 48/25a in the Southern North Sea.

The license was awarded in the 2016 Supplementary Offshore Oil and Gas Licensing Round. The license includes the western part of the Vulcan North West discovery that extends into 48/25a and also includes the Hogsback, Hobson, and Goacher prospects.

Vulcan North West is a part of the company’s Vulcan Satellites hub development. It is a discovery with independently estimated P50 gas initially in place of 215 bcf and 2C recoverable resources of 131 bcf.  Around 18 percent of the discovery is estimated to be in the new license 48/25a, so the award of this license secures some 24 bcf of 2C resources.

According to IOG, the Vulcan Satellites field development is progressing according to plan with all three fields expected to be tied back to the Thames Pipeline which is in the process of being acquired and recommissioned by the company.

The new license will be included in the Field Development Plan that is currently being drafted and will also be included in the new Competent Person Report (CPR) that is being prepared by ERC Equipoise.

IOG added that the CPR for the Blythe hub, consisting of the Blythe and Elgood fields, should be received within the coming weeks. The CPR for the Vulcan Satellites is targeted by the end of the third quarter.

Hogsback, Hobson, and Goacher

The Hogsback Leman gas prospect is a tilted fault block to the west of Vulcan North West. It is on-trend and up-dip from the 48/24b-2 gas discovery drilled by Hess in 1990. It is estimated by the company to have a technical chance of success of 44 percent with a most likely gas in place of 30 bcf and most likely resources of 18 bcf of which 96 percent is on the block.

Hobson is an oil discovery, but currently, there is significant uncertainty regarding its size with minimum, most likely and maximum oil in place estimates of 1 mmbbls, 2 mmbbls, 18 mmbbls respectively. The newly awarded block holds 59 percent of the Hobson discovery. IOG stated that, should any decision be taken to drill, Hogsback and Hobson could be appraised with a single well.

Goacher is a Leman gas prospect which is a relatively low relief faulted anticline with a most likely gas in place of 71 bcf.  The company currently estimates that the technical chance of success is 29 percent with 36 percent of resources is on the newly awarded block.

Mark Routh, CEO and interim chairman of IOG, said: “We are pleased to have been awarded this license by the OGA in the Supplementary Licensing Round which secures and adds further gas resources to our dual gas hub strategy.

“Our SNS field development work continues to progress very well in the meantime. We are on track to submit the Blythe/Elgood FDP very soon and the Vulcan Satellites FDP in the third quarter of 2017 once the reservoir modeling work is finished.”