IGas production ahead of forecasts

IGas Energy, the company looking to extract coal bed methane from a number of sites owned by Peel Energy, said that it had made progress at a number of its key projects around the region.

In a trading update, the firm said it had completed drilling in coal at its Doe Green site near Warrington and has almost completed drilling the sump at the fourth well. It said that drilling was more complex than expected with more fault lines, but added that it had experienced “higher levels of gas” than previously expected.

It has also encountered “a very significant shale section of at least 1,000 feet” at its site at Ince Marshes, which reached all the way to the bottom of its target depth.

IGas said that production from its assets stand at an average of 2,700 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), which is 15% ahead of forecasts. Around 1,500 of these are hedged at $93.4 per barrel, but the rest are selling for over $106 per barrel.

IGas Energy chief executive Andrew Austin said: “We are pleased to announce that we have completed the coal drilling phase at Doe Green and that we have seen strong performance from the production assets following the completion of our acquisition of Star Energy.

“We are also very encouraged by the shale encountered at Ince Marshes as this exceeds what we expected and we look forward to the results of the interpretation of the logs and samples.”