Oil production at the IGas field at Horndean in Hampshire is expected to rise this year following the introduction of new pumps, one of the partners has said.
UK Oil & Gas plc (UKOG), which has a 10% stake in the oil field, said average oil production was expected to reach 108 barrels of oil per day (bopd), when new surface pumps went online.
The replacement pumps, currently being installed, were also expected to lower electrical power consumption and increase 2023 field earnings, UKOG said.
The Horndean field, 10 miles north of Portsmouth, averaged 101 bopd in 2022, UKOG said. The field generated oil sale revenues for UKOG in 2022 of £287,000, the company added.
UKOG’s chief executive, Stephen Sanderson, said Horndean “continues to provide valuable earnings”.
A report for UKOG by DeGolyer and MacNaughton estimated that Horndean had 1m barrels of 2P oil (mid-case commercially-recoverable oil reserves).
Recent data from the industry regulator, the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), showed that Horndean was the 7th highest ranking UK onshore oil field in 2022. But more than 80% of onshore production was, as in previous years, from a single field, Wytch Farm.
According to NSTA data, Horndean extracted a total of 5,938m3 of oil in 2022, amounting to 0.73% of annual UK onshore oil production. This was the field’s lowest annual total volume of oil for 34 years, the NSTA data shows.
DRILL OR DROP? 
So, here is a site that has been producing since 1988-a period of 35 years-without issue, within a pretty and expensive area of the country and still has a little bit more to give.
I do recall a chat to a friend who had bought a house not too far distant that was supposed to be over another reservoir of oil that was being considered when oil prices were high, around 10 years ago-before the USA ramped up fracking and broke the price control of OPEC. I told her not to worry, the whole area was covered in housing since the “discovery” was made so she would be very unlikely to see Derrick at the bottom of her garden, or even a donkey.
Fascinating!
Exactly, 1720. Really interesting that DoD reminded us readers of the facts, for us to comment upon. Good of you to engage-almost.
What might be even more fascinating would be to identify the numbers of houses built around Horndean over the 35 years, the amounts of fossil fuel used to build them and the emissions produced from said households. Just might be that even with Horndean pumping away it has not been able to even cover local demand, but hey ho, it has tried. Just like an on shore wind turbine, but even when the wind isn’t blowing. All without costing the locals £400k from attempts to try and stop it.
Never mind, there is a refinery a few miles away that can and does process imported oil. Shame that devalues the Balance of Payments and thus currency, so that when the old and new residents of Horndean want to travel abroad on holiday they pay more. I do have some empathy with that, even though I do not have a demand for that myself.