Independent Oil and Gas plc (IOG) has announced the spudding of the Elgood development well located in the UK North Sea.

IOG has a 50 per cent operated working interest in licence P2260 to the west of Blythe containing the Elgood discovery (Block 48/22c), which was awarded in the UK 28th licensing round. The remaining 50 per cent interest is held by CalEnergy Resources (UK) Limited.

Elgood is the first of five planned development wells in IOG’s Phase 1 project and is expected to take approximately three months to drill and complete, after which the rig will move on to Blythe in early Q3.

According to IOG, the Noble Hans Deul jack-up rig mobilised from the Cromarty Firth on 1 April and reached the Elgood field location early on 4 April.

After preparation and jacking-up the Elgood well spudded on 9 April.

CEO of IOG, Andrew Hockey, said commencing the Phase 1 drilling campaign is another key milestone for the company, as it continues to progress towards commercialisation.

“This drilling campaign has been planned meticulously by the IOG drilling, subsurface, subsea and HSE teams since early last year, in collaboration with our main drilling contractors Noble Corporation, Petrofac and Schlumberger and our partner CalEnergy.”

“We have a very clear collective focus on ensuring safe and efficient performance leading successfully to first gas in Q3 2021 at the Blythe Hub before continuing into 2022 at Southwark,” Mr Hockey said.