IGas announces that, following spudding of the well on 27 November 2018, it has reached the TD (total depth) of the TL-1 exploration well at Tinker Lane in North Nottinghamshire. 

This exploration well forms part of an integrated exploration and appraisal programme to better define the basin consisting of this margin sited well at Tinker Lane and a basin centred well at Springs Road.

The drilling operations were completed significantly ahead of schedule, largely as a result of improved drilling performance, following detailed analysis of our previous experience. The well was drilled on prognosis and encountered a shale interval before penetrating the key Dinantian limestone geophysical marker. The shales encountered did not include the primary target, the Bowland Shale.

IGas will now conduct a comprehensive logging programme of the well, which will be crucial to understanding the geological setting and help to further refine their basin modelling. The results from this well will further assist the company in better defining the basin and has satisfied the work programme obligation on the licence.

Commenting, Stephen Bowler, CEO said:
"Whilst the results of this well will help calibrate our geological models of the region and has demonstrated further improvements in drilling performance, we are naturally disappointed not to have encountered the Bowland Shale.

The outcome of this exploration well does not change our view on the prospectivity of our next target well at Springs Road, where we believe a thick section of shale is present due to its more central location in the basin and which we expect to spud in the first quarter of 2019."