A workover rig has been delivered to Egdon Resources’ Wressle oil site in North Lincolnshire to prepare the well for production.
The company confirmed it would reperforate a section of the well as a first attempt to improve the oil flow from the Ashover Grit sandstone formation.
A spokesperson for Egdon Resources said today:
“the workover rig and associated equipment began mobilisation to the Wressle site on 4th January.
“The immediate plan is to reperforate the existing Ashover Grit formation, and then flow test to determine whether this has been successful in respect of overcoming the near wellbore formation permeability issues.”
Egdon confirmed last year that it no longer planned to acidize the Wressle well to improve oil flows. But it said it would, if necessary, carry out a proppant squeeze, a form of small-scale fracking.
The spokesperson said:
“we do not yet have a timescale for the proppant squeeze operation should this be required.”
The proppant squeeze cannot begin until the Oil & Gas Authority and the Environment Agency have approved a hydraulic fracturing plan (HFP).
This plan must be submitted by Egdon Resources at least two months before the start of the proppant squeeze. It is required as a condition of the site’s mining waste permit.
The HFP must contain assessments of the expected fracturing and the risk of induced seismicity. It should also include a map of faults near the well path, information on historical seismicity in the area, a summary of the planned operation, including stages, pumping pressures and volumes, as well as proposed measures to monitor seismicity and limit fracture height.
The mining waste permit allows the proppant squeeze to be carried out once, injecting 145m3 of fluid at a depth of about 1,580m.
If the proppant squeeze fails to improve oil flow sufficiently, Egdon has said it would continue with its plan to drill a sidetrack to the main wellbore.
Egdon published its preliminary financial results today for the year to 31 July 2020. The company said it expected production from Wressle would begin during late January 2021. Initial volumes were predicted at 500 barrels of oil per day (bopd), of which 150 bopd would be net to Egdon.
The Wressle well was spudded in July 2014 and drilled to a depth of 2,240m. Planning permission for production was approved on 17 January 2020 after a second public inquiry.
DRILL OR DROP? 
we are in a world health crisis and fracking for over 5 years manybe 6 years. No one is joining the dots except our beautiful land protectors.Thank you so much for existing and reporting and witnessing and living in hedges horley and north. All the brilliant and educated people that know this is insane to poison our water. warmth and solidarity Frances Ocean environmentalist activist grandma south and north
And Frances Ocean uses the output from oil to make her point!
This is the Wressle well where such “protectors” managed to do what? Oh yes, I recall. Cost the local community £400k !! And, not only that, the final decision included the following:
“There is no suggestion this proposal would increase the use of hydrocarbons, and the evidence demonstrates that the effect would be simply to transfer production to a more local source.”
And, of course, local sourcing is far better for the environment. Or, maybe some think it better to have their french beans flown in from Kenya?
So, brilliant and educated to cost the community £400k in an attempt to stop a project that will actually help the environment? Everyone entitled to their view, but I beg to disagree.
Dear Ruth, Thanks for this and other info See my comments Happy New Year , Dear lady
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