The Bouldnor Copse-1 planning application allows Northern Petroleum to confirm the timetable for two wells on the Isle of Wight.

Northern believe that the structures contain a potential 135 million barrels of recoverable oil net to the company.

The Sandhills-2 well will be drilled as the first well in the programme and has a primary target of the Great Oolite limestone which has been proven to be oil bearing in the Sandhills-1 well drilled by British Gas in 1982, but untested at the time of drilling.

The Great Oolite reservoir will be cored, logged and tested to establish oil content and the productivity of the reservoir. Following initial testing a decision will be made to either continue with a longer term testing programme of the Great Oolite or continue to the deeper Sherwood sandstone target or release the rig to drill Bouldnor Copse-1 and bring it back afterwards to deepen the well to the Sherwood sandstone.

The Bouldnor Copse-1 well will be drilled following completion of operations at Sandhills-2 and will be targeted at both the Great Oolite as a further appraisal of this reservoir and deepened to the Sherwood sandstone to evaluate this reservoir target. Testing operations will commence with an evaluation of the Sherwood sandstone given encouragement from core and log analysis followed by testing of the Great Oolite, if analysis indicates hydrocarbon saturation, to enable a comparison to the results obtained at Sandhills-2.

Northern has issued tenders for site construction at the Sandhills-2 site and has issued tenders for a rig for the two well drilling programme. Long lead time items for both wells have already been ordered to meet the earliest spud date. Site construction is expected to commence at the Sandhills site within 3 weeks and the earliest anticipated spud date for the first well is December 2004 or January 2005, thus avoiding operations through the festive season.

For further information please contact,

Derek Musgrove, Managing Director
Northern Petroleum Plc
Tel. 020 7743 6080

Ben Simons
Hansard Communications
Tel. 020 7245 1100