A British experimental oil well, called the Gatwick Gusher, struck more oil than it could pump Monday.
There was so much oil the Gusher actually hit the maximum capacity limit of its pumps. Only North Sea wells have produced oil at these rates in U.K. history. There are likely 20 million barrels of oil that can be accessed by the Gatwick Gusher.
“The flow test results are outstanding, demonstrating North Sea-like oil rates from an onshore well,” Steve Sanderson, the executive chairman of the company which owns the well, told The Independent. “This simple vertical well has achieved an impressive aggregate oil rate equivalent to 8.5 per cent of total UK onshore daily oil production.”
A study published in February showed that the area around the well could hold up to 10 billion barrels of oil. According to government data, the rest of Britain only has 2.98 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. American horizontal drilling techniques could allow even more oil to be accessed according to the study.
In 2014, the U.K. consumed about 1.5 million barrels of oil per day, most of which was imported.
“We are delighted, therefore, that this discovery has the serious prospect of being a meaningful addition to the UK’s own supply of oil in a period where North Sea production is declining more rapidly than expected,” Sanderson continued. “These results cause us to rethink and recalibrate many prior geological assumptions.”
Environmentalists, who worried the well could create an incentive for hydraulic fracturing in the U.K., began protesting against the Gatwick Gusher in February. Drilling in the area won’t require fracking according to the company which operates the well.
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