Work on a new well at the West Newton-B oil and gas site in East Yorkshire has been postponed again.

Earlier this year, the site operator, Rathlin Energy, told local people the new well was scheduled for autumn 2023.

But an announcement today said drilling was not now expected until 2024.

This is the third time the well has apparently been delayed.

In 2019, an investor in the site, Reabold Resources, announced that two wells would be drilled at West Newton-B in 2020.

Drilling began on the first well in October 2020. Rathlin drilled a sidetrack to that well. But there was no work on the second well.

In January 2021, Reabold said the second well, to be called WNB-2, would be drilled in the second half of 2021. That also did not happen.

Today’s update, given to the West Newton community liaison committee, said plans for the horizontal well were now underway:

“Commencement of operations are targeted for first half of 2024 subject to approval of the pending Environment Agency permit for West Newton B and rig availability.”

It also said:

“Well path selection and the engineered well design have been completed. Wellbore casing has been purchased and Rathlin Energy (UK) Limited has approached drilling rig and other key rig service contractors to determine their availability.”

Some investors in Rathlin’s partners pointed out today that the announcement notably did not confirm whether the rig had been secured or contracts signed.

At the time of writing, shares in Reabold Resources were down 2.33% at 0.10p.

The other partner, Union Jack Oil, saw shares fall this morning. But at the time of writing, they were up nearly 1% at 20.70p.

Rathlin Energy originally got planning permission for WNB-2, in 2015. Consent was extended in March 2022 for another three years.

The variation of the environmental permit for Rathlin’s neighbouring well site, West Newton-A, was granted this week.

Rathlin Energy said today that 1 trillion cubic feet of gas could be produced from the West Newton sites and other prospects in the licence area, PEDL183. This had “the potential to meet the daily gas demands of over 380,000 homes for many years to come”, the company said.