Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) PLC Positive Holmwood Update
23 Septembre 2015 - 4:02PM
UK Regulatory
TIDMEOG
Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc / Index: AIM / Epic: EOG / Sector: Oil & Gas
23 September 2015
Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc ('Europa' or 'the Company')
Positive Holmwood Update
Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc, the AIM quoted oil and gas company with a
combination of producing and exploration assets in Europe, is pleased to
confirm that Surrey County Council's Planning & Regulatory Committee has
granted permission for the underground drilling corridor of an exploratory
borehole at the Holmwood prospect ('Holmwood') 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. Next steps will include fulfilment of planning
conditions and commencement of detailed drilling planning and environmental
permitting. It is anticipated that drilling will take place in late 2016 or in
2017. Europa and its partner Warwick Energy intend to farm out some of their
combined 60% equity in licence PEDL 143. The farm out process has already
commenced and further updates will be provided as when it is appropriate to do
so.
An application for planning permission to drill the Holmwood prospect on
PEDL143 was submitted in 2008 and was dismissed by Surrey County Council in
2011. A planning appeal in 2012 was dismissed by the Planning Inspectorate.
Europa successfully challenged this decision in the High Court in 2013. In
2014 the Court of Appeal upheld the 2013 High Court judgment in the Company's
favour and a second planning appeal was heard at an eight day public inquiry in
April and June 2015. The Planning Inspectorate issued a decision to allow the
remitted appeal on 7 August 2015 and Surrey County Council allowed planning
permission for the underground drilling corridor on 23 September 2015.
Europa provided the following information in its Geological Proof of Evidence
submitted at the Planning Inquiry in April 2015: "In the event of a successful
oil discovery at Holmwood and based on the most likely resource in place then
the field is projected [by Europa] to have a Present Value of around GBP137
million at 60 $/bbl oil price in 2015 rising to 92 $/bbl by 2018 and inflated
at 2% thereafter. After taking costs and discounting into account the Net
Present Value to the Government based on current taxation rates will be around
GBP86 million with around GBP51 million accruing to the Licensee group. As such the
Holmwood prospect is considered of material value to both the Government and
the Licensee."
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 barrels 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."
* * ENDS * *
For further information please visit http://www.europaoil.com/ or contact:
Hugh Mackay Europa + 44 (0) 20 7224 3770
Phil Greenhalgh Europa + 44 (0) 20 7224 3770
Matt Goode finnCap Ltd + 44 (0) 20 7220 0500
Simon Hicks finnCap Ltd + 44 (0) 20 7220 0500
Frank Buhagiar St Brides Partners Ltd + 44 (0) 20 7236 1177
Lottie Brocklehurst St Brides Partners Ltd + 44 (0) 20 7236 1177
Notes
Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc has a diversified portfolio of multi-stage
hydrocarbon assets that includes production, exploration and development
interests, in countries that are politically stable, have transparent licensing
processes, and offer attractive terms. In H1/2015 Europa produced 144 boepd
generating sufficient revenues to cover corporate overheads and some
exploration expenditure. Its highly prospective exploration projects include
the Wressle discovery (recently drilled and tested at an aggregate of 710 boepd
from 4 zones) in the UK; 100% owned gas exploration prospect (107 bcf) and
appraisal project (CPR 277 bcf) in onshore France a joint venture with
Vermillion Energy also in onshore France; and two licences in offshore Ireland
with the potential to host gross mean un-risked Prospective Resources
approximately 1.7 billion barrels across both licences.
END
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