KeyFacts Energy: Farm-in agreements   l   KeyFacts Energy: Upland Resources UK country profile   l   Baron Oil UK country profile

Upland Resources provides an update on its licence P2478 in the Inner Moray Firth, United Kingdom.

The holders of the Licence being Upland, Corallian Energy Limited and Baron Oil have agreed, conditional inter alia on approval from the UK Oil and Gas Authority (“OGA”), on a reassignment of Upland’s 8% interests in the Licence to Baron such that Upland’s interest will reduce from 40% to 32%. Corallian have also agreed to reduce their interests in the Licence by 9%. Upon completion of the Assignment the interests in the Licence will be as follows:

P2478 Working Interests

In return for the Assignment of an additional 17% interest in the Licence, Baron has agreed to pay 100% of the costs of the remaining Phase A work commitments under the Licence up to a cap of £160,000.  This work commitment is to undertake reprocessing of legacy 2D and 3D seismic data and perform other studies in order to reduce risk and refine volumetric estimates ahead of making a “drill or drop” decision before the end of Phase A in July 2023.   Commencement of the outstanding Phase A technical work commitments is due shortly with the key component, that of 3D seismic reprocessing, expected to be delivered early in 2022. 

The Licence, which contains the prospective Dunrobin area, was awarded to the JV in September 2019 as part of the UK 31st Offshore Licensing Round.   In Q1 2021, the Licence Holders received the results of technical studies from a large European E&P company under a work sharing agreement, which enhanced the Licence Holders’ understanding of the petroleum geology and corroborated their view of Dunrobin as a potentially attractive and substantial target. The Directors believe Dunrobin is one of the few remaining sizeable undrilled UK North Sea targets with estimated gross mean prospective resources of the order of 100 MMbbl (a non-SPE PRMS compliant estimate).

Bolhassan Di, Chief Executive of Upland, commented:
“The agreement enables us to reduce our costs while retaining a very meaningful interest in this highly prospective area. It will also see the work programme accelerated with seismic reprocessing now occurring earlier then before and allowing us and our partners more time to evaluate our drilling and farm out options prior to the Jul 2023 deadline.”

Covering blocks 12/27c, 17/5, 18/1 and 18/2 in the Inner Moray Firth area of the North Sea, the Licence contains the prospective Dunrobin area which consists of large shallow rotated fault blocks which are mapped mostly on 3D seismic data including candidate direct hydrocarbon indicators. Well costs are expected to be modest at c. £7 million gross as the prospect lies in shallow water of less than 100 metres and the total drilling depth of the well is prognosed to be approximately 660 metres.