Petro River Oil Corp. has announced that Petro River UK Limited, its wholly owned subsidiary, has received notice regarding the commencement of drilling operations on the Woodburn Forest-1 Well in Larne Basin, Northern Ireland. Initial results are expected in July 2016.

The vertical well will be drilled to a depth of 2,000 metres to test the commercial viability of three conventional sandstone reservoir intervals, the Triassic Sherwood Sandstone, Lower Permian Sandstone and Carboniferous Sandstones. The P50 Prospective Resources have been estimated by our joint venture partners at 25 million barrels of oil within the Woodburn Forest prospect.

Stephen Brunner, President of Petro River comments, “The commencement of drilling operations at Larne Basin is a major milestone for the Company, its shareholders and working interest partners. Larne Basin remains one of the only Carboniferous basins in Europe that is untested for hydrocarbons. As a micro-cap company today, we are excited to be a part of a project like this with such large potential.”

“After we reach total depth, our teams will complete a comprehensive subsurface engineering study to fully analyse and evaluate each of the sandstone reservoir intervals. Findings from this well, coupled with new 3-D seismic data to be acquired in the basin over subsurface prospects previously identified by recently collected 2-D seismic data will help define and high-grade potential locations for future wells. The success of this first pilot test well, and the data gained from it, should substantially increase the value of our exploration program and reduce future development risk in Larne Basin” continues Brunner.

Tags: Petro River Oil Corp.