Europa Oil & Gas gains Holmwood drilling permission

Europa Oil & Gas plc has announced Surrey County Council’s Planning & Regulatory Committee has granted permission for the underground drilling corridor of an exploratory borehole at the Holmwood prospect in the PEDL143 licence in the Weald Basin.

Europa holds a 40% interest in PEDL 143, which contains the conventional Holmwood prospect, alongside Egdon Resources (18.4%), Altwood Petroleum (1.6%), Warwick Energy (20%) and UK Oil & Gas Investments (20% subject to completion of farm-in).

The Holmwood prospect is to be drilled as a deviated exploration well. Europa and its partners now have planning permission for both the surface site and the underground drilling corridor.

CEO, Hugh Mackay, said “Following Surrey County Council’s favourable decision, we are meeting with our joint venture partners and reviewing plans to take the Holmwood prospect forward to drilling. With gross mean un-risked prospective resources of 5.6 million bbls of oil, as estimated in a CPR published in June 2012, Holmwood would be the UK’s fifth largest onshore field were the mean resources case to be proved by drilling success. Combined with a one in three chance of success, we therefore regard Holmwood as one of the best undrilled conventional prospects in onshore UK. I look forward to providing further updates, as we look to build on our success at Wressle and in the process transform our revenue and reserves profile.”

Next steps will include fulfilment of planning conditions and commencement of detailed drilling planning and environmental permitting, and it is anticipated that drilling will take place in late 2016 or in 2017.

Edited from press release by Angharad Lock

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/drilling-and-production/24092015/europa-oil-gas-gains-holmwood-drilling-permission-1471/