Farm-out chill stymies UKCS optimism

The potential of a play-opening discovery is shackled by lack of investor appetite

Graham Swindells and Stephen Williams, CEO and co-CEO respectively of UK independents Deltic Energy and Reabold Resources, should be happy men. The former has struck material gas at Deltic’s Pensacola prospect, significantly improving confidence across the whole Zechstein Reef play fairway in the Southern North Sea (SNS), while the latter jointly leads a company with substantial exposure to the play both onshore and offshore. Williams can also point to a previously overlooked gas prospect on Reabold’s PEDL183 that new analysis suggests could be both significantly larger than previously thought and more permeable than other rocks in the formation. But Swindells is instead fielding questions f