A consortium led by Britain’s Northern Petroleum plans to spud two wells in licence PEDL098 on the island off England’s southern coast by the middle of next month. The well will appraise structures on a trend linked to the famous Wytch Farm oil field further west.

The other partners include: Australia’s Magellan Petroleum; Black Rock Oil & Gas, an AIM-listed UK-based company led by Australian Ivan Burgess; and Bristol-based and AIM-listed junior, Oil Quest Resources.

Oil Quest said higher oil prices were providing impetus to drill among the green fields of England and UK companies were now are investigating parts of their onshore oil-producing backyards.

The Isle of Wight wells are in one of the 11 licence areas in which Oil Quest obtained an interest during the past 12 months. The company aims to work at onshore exploration sites with high upside potential in proven hydrocarbon-producing basins.

Oil Quest has estimated the gross recoverable reserves from its drilling program could be 119 million barrels and 123 billion cubic feet of gas.

The company's Isle of Wight wells - the Sandhills-2 appraisal well and another at Bouldner Copse - are about five kilometres north-west of the island’s capital Newport.

Sandhills-2 will be drilled to 4,167 feet to investigate an oil column intersected, but not evaluated or tested, by British Gas’ Sandhills-1 well in 1981.

At the time, an interpreted oil column was found in the Jurassic Great Oolite.

Recently, interest in the island’s historic bores has risen as the Oolite became an oil producer in other areas of southern England.

The oil reported in Sandhills-1 and the high degree of deformation along the central axis of the island led exploration juniors to acquire licences centred on the Isle of Wight during the tenth round of UK licensing in 2002.

Interests in Sandhills-2 are Northern Petroleum 62.5%, Magellan Petroleum 27.5%, Oil Quest 5% and Black Rock 5%.