Europa Oil & Gas announces new offshore licensing options

Europa Oil & Gas plc has formally accepted the award of four new Licensing Options as part of phase two of the 2015 Atlantic Ireland licensing round.

• LO 16/19 is in the South Porcupine basin and contains the Cretaceous fan play and has the potential for 300 – 1000 million boe gross mean un-risked indicative resources. Turbidite channels have been clearly mapped on Europa’s 3D seismic on the adjacent FEL 2/13 and the Company considers it highly likely that these channels are directly feeding submarine fans developed in LO 16/19.
• LO 16/20 is exploration immediately adjacent to, and northwest of, the Corrib gas field in the Slyne Basin. Corrib came onto production in December 2015. LO 16/20 contains the Triassic gas play and Europa has identified gross mean un-risked prospective resources of 1 trillion ft³ in a Triassic horst block some 16 km northwest of Corrib and mapped on historic 3D seismic.
• LO 16/21 is exploration around 40 km northeast of the Corrib gas field in the Slyne Basin. It contains the Triassic gas play and Europa has identified gross mean un-risked indicative resources of up to 0.5 trillion ft³ in Triassic tilted fault blocks mapped on historic 2D and 3D seismic.
• LO 16/22 is frontier exploration in the Padraig basin on the eastern margin of the Rockall Trough and some 160 km to the west of the Connemara and Spanish point oil and gas discoveries. LO 16/22 contains the Pre-rift and Syn-rift Plays. Europa was inspired by the exploration success on the western side of the Atlantic conjugate margin in the Flemish Pass basin offshore Newfoundland and considers that the Padraig basin may have been juxtaposed against Flemish Pass prior to Atlantic rifting. Europa has mapped gross mean un-risked indicative resources 300 - 600 million boe on historic 2D seismic.

Following the completion of a work programme, Europa has the option to apply to the Irish authorities for their consent to convert each LO into a full Frontier Exploration Licence (FEL).

Europa CEO, Hugh Mackay, commented: “I am delighted to confirm award of four new Licensing Options and to provide investors with some more technical background regarding the licences. I hope that investors can now begin to understand how important this licence round has been for Europa’s ongoing corporate development. We now have a leading position with seven licences in offshore Ireland and feel that we have a sustainable exploration business with a balanced portfolio of assets in three basins with a variety of risk ranging from exploration in a proven commercial play to frontier exploration and all points in between. We have been working the basins hard since 2011 and this very successful outcome to the licence round represents the fruits of our labours.”

“All our licences have the potential to be high impact and each one could be a company maker for Europa in the event of drilling success. Europa is potentially exposed to 4 billion boe and 1.5 trillion ft3 of gross mean unrisked indicative and prospective resources across the seven licences. Potential joint venture partners often cite the need for ‘running room’ in a basin, i.e. they want more than one licence, Europa is now in a position to be a one stop shop for that running room. Over the next few weeks we look forward to finding out which companies have been awarded neighbouring licences and in due course we will provide further technical detail on our new awards.”

Edited from press release by Angharad Lock

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/drilling-and-production/08062016/europa-oil-gas-announces-new-offshore-licensing-options-679/