AIM-listed Reabold finds largest onshore oil field in UK in 50 years
A London-listed oil firm has today said it believes it has found the largest onshore oil field discovered in the UK since 1973, sending its shares soaring.
Reabold Resources said that drillers at the West Newton site in east Yorkshire had found a new 62 metre oil reservoir, taking the total hydrocarbon column to 118 metres.
It added that drillers had yet to encounter the oil-water contact level – which means that the oil field could be even larger than currently estimated.
As a result of the find, shares in the firm rose over 30 per cent this morning.
The latest discovery means that the field is on course to be the biggest onshore find since drillers struck gold at Wytch Farm in Dorset.
Production at the south coast site hit a high of 110,000 barrels per day in 1997, but has now dwindled to 13,500.
Sachin Oza, co-CEO of Reabold, said: “West Newton continues to surpass expectations and we are confident that it will be the largest onshore UK discovery since 1973.
“With more analysis to be done, we believe that these indications augur extremely well for the future of the West Newton project, which has the potential to be a meaningful and crucially local source of hydrocarbons for the Humber region.”
AIM-listed Reabold holds a 56 per cent stake in West Newton via its 59 per cent shareholding in operator Rathlin Energy, which, in turn, has a 66.6 per cent interest.
The exploratory firm has a variety of oil and gas projects around the world, and owns stakes in discoveries in Scotland, California, and Romania.
It will now carry out further analysis of data from the well.