Stellar Resources to buy interest in Horse Hill project

Stellar Resources has signed an agreement to buy a 7.5% equity interest in Horse Hill Development (HHDL), which holds the rights to a 65% participating interest and operatorship in an onshore licence at Horse Hill Wood in the UK Weald Basin in Surrey.

HHDL has an exclusive farm-in agreement with Magellan Petroleum (UK), which owns 100% of the 99.29km² exploration and development PEDL 137 license at present.

HHDL will have the right to earn a direct 65% participating interest and operatorship in the licence under the terms of the agreement, by drilling the proposed 2,646m Horse Hill-1 exploration well by the end of August. Stellar will pay £10,000 towards the drilling costs for the initial 7.5% interest in HHDL. After the necessary legal documents are cleared within 30 days, Stellar will make a further £50,000 payment.

The Horse Hill-1 well is planned to test various conventional stacked oil targets at the productive Portland sandstone, Corallian sandstone and Great Oolite limestone levels.

Stellar Resources chairman David Lenigas said that the company aims to expand its portfolio of global resource investments.

"The Horse Hill prospect represents an immediate opportunity for the company to be a key consortium participant in a significant conventional onshore oil and gas play," Lenigas added.

Covering an area of up to 16km² in the south-west quadrant of PEDL 137, the Horse Hill prospect could contain up to an estimated 671 million barrels of oil, the majority in the Lower Portland sandstone.