Wressle – The East Midlands
Wressle continues to exceed the Company’s expectations, generating high levels of production and revenues, with the Wressle-1 well currently amongst the most productive in the onshore UK, producing over 170,000 barrels of oil up to May 2022. In 2022, the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) approved the Field Development Plan for the oilfield, ensuring the Wressle project remains on track to transition from an extended well test to production.
Europa is focused on advancing the development plan and consenting process to enable production from the Penistone Flags reservoir, where gross Mid-case Contingent Resources of 1.53 million barrels of oil and 2 billion cubic feet of gas have been independently reported, in addition to progressing gas monetisation and continuing to optimise oil and gas production from the Ashover Grit reservoir.
| Licence | PEDL180 |
| Europa interest | 30% |
| Partners | Egdon 30% (operator), Union Jack 40% |
| Area km2 | 60 |
| Basin | East Midlands |
| Play | Carboniferous (conventional) |
| Term | Part 2 of phase 1 |
The Wressle oil discovery straddles PEDL180 and PEDL182. It lies 5km southeast of, and along the same structural trend as, the Europa-operated Crosby Warren field which has been producing oil for almost 30 years. The field was discovered by the Wressle-1 conventional exploration well which was drilled to a total depth of 2,240m (1,814m TVDSS) on 23 August 2014. Petro-physical evaluation of measurement whilst drilling (MWD) log data indicated over 30m measured thickness of potential hydrocarbon pay in three main intervals:
Ashover Grit – up to 6.1m measured thickness of potential hydrocarbon pay:
- Wingfield Flags – up to 5.64m
- Penistone Flags – up to 19.8m
Four intervals were tested between February and March 2015 flowing an aggregate 710boepd during testing operations:
- Ashover Grit – 80bopd and 47 thousand cubic feet of gas per day (mcfd), free flow;
- Wingfield Flags – up to 182bopd and 0.456 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd), free flow;
- Penistone Flags zone 3 – up to 1.7 mmcfd and up to 12bopd, free flow; and
- Penistone Flags zone 3a – 77bopd, swabbed
The results facilitated the design of an Extended Well Test (EWT) programme to quantify the production levels that could be attained from pumped production. Reservoir engineering analyses indicates that an initial production flow rate of 500bopd gross from the Ashover Grit interval. A CPR was issued on 26 September 2016 which identified gross 2P reserves on the Wressle structure of 0.65mmboe in the Ashover and Wingfield Flags and gross 2C contingent resources of 1.86mmboe in the Penistone Flags. The EWT provided the basis for the Field Development Plan (FDP) which was submitted on 8 September 2016.
Works to reconfigure the site for production commenced at the end of July 2020, however production started at the end of January 2021. Modest production continued, off and on until the middle of August in 2021 and following the proppant squeeze. The successful operation reduced near hole skin damage caused by the drilling process and Europa is expecting the Wressle field to be able to achieve 950bbls per day eventually.
