Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) PLC Award of New Offshore Ireland Licensing Option

 
TIDMEOG 
 
Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc / Index: AIM / Epic: EOG / Sector: Oil & Gas 
 
12 February 2016 
 
          Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc ('Europa' or 'the Company') 
 
                 Award of New Offshore Ireland Licensing Option 
 
Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc, the AIM listed oil and gas exploration, 
development and production company focused on Europe, is delighted to announce 
it has been awarded a new Licensing Option (the 'LO') in the southern Porcupine 
Basin, offshore Ireland, as part of phase 1 of the 2015 Atlantic Ireland 
round.  This follows the announcement on 11 February 2015 by the Minister of 
State at the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources 
('DECNR'), Mr. Joe McHugh. 
 
The Company understands it will shortly be issued with a formal letter of award 
from DECNR, at which point Europa will confirm its acceptance of the LO.  Once 
all the awards have been accepted Europa's LO will be allocated a number and 
DECNR will publish a map showing the awarded LOs and the relevant companies. 
 Europa will have a 100% interest in the two year LO.  Following the completion 
of a work programme, Europa has the option to apply to the Irish authorities 
for their consent to convert the licence into a FEL. 
 
Licence awards in the 2015 Atlantic Ireland round are being made in two phases. 
 The Company understands that phase 1 announced on 11 February 2016 was 
designed to accommodate applications in areas where firm seismic acquisition 
programmes formed part of Licensing Option work programmes with some surveys 
planned to be acquired in summer 2016.  The offer of awards for 14 licensing 
options involves eight companies, Eni, Europa, ExxonMobil, Nexen, Scotia, 
Statoil and Woodside as operators, along with BP who will partner with Eni. 
Europa has made additional licence applications and awaits the outcome of the 
second and final phase of awards scheduled for mid-May with great interest. 
 
Europa CEO Hugh Mackay said, "We are delighted with the award of this Licensing 
Option, particularly given the strength of the competing companies.  This is an 
endorsement of the strong technical work that supported our bids.  We are 
pleased that major and mid-cap oil companies are now taking acreage positions 
around our licences and we feel this is providing validation of our long held 
belief that the South Porcupine Basin is underexplored and has the potential to 
hold substantial hydrocarbon reserves.  The success of this licensing round 
indicates that the Porcupine is no longer under appreciated.  We have made 
other applications that remain live and look forward to the announcement of the 
second phase of awards during May." 
 
FEL 2/13 and 3/13 
 
Europa understands that formal documentation from the Irish Authorities 
authorising the transfer of Kosmos Energy Ireland's interest and operatorship 
for FEL 2/13 and 3/13 to Europa is in preparation.  Once this has been formally 
approved, Europa's interest in both these licences will revert to 100%.  As 
announced on 12 May 2015, a Competent Persons Report ('CPR') prepared by ERC 
Equipoise ('ERCE') detailed total Gross mean Un-risked Prospective Resources of 
1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent ('boe') across three prospects in FEL 3/ 
13.  ERCE estimates a mean Un-risked Net Present Value ('NPV') of approximately 
US$7 billion to a 100% working interest in these three prospects and a US$1.1 
billion NPV on a risked basis. 
 
Activity on these licences is focused on finding a farm-in partner with whom to 
take the licences into the next exploration phase and drill an exploration 
well.  The target market is major and mid-cap oil companies and the farm-out 
data room opened on 11 January 2016.  Europa is pleased with the response from 
target companies and considers the Phase 1 awards to be a positive development 
for the farm-out. 
 
                                 * * 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 
 
Susie Geliher     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 2015 Europa produced 141 boepd.  Its 
highly prospective exploration projects include the Wressle development 
(targeting production startup in H2 2016 at up to 500 bopd gross) 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 offshore Ireland with the potential to host gross mean 
un-risked Prospective Resources of approximately 2 billion barrels across both 
licences. 
 
Qualified Person Review 
 
This release has been reviewed by Hugh Mackay, Chief Executive of Europa, who 
is a petroleum geologist with 30 years' experience in petroleum exploration and 
a member of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain, American 
Association of Petroleum Geologists and Fellow of the Geological Society. Mr 
Mackay has consented to the inclusion of the technical information in this 
release in the form and context in which it appears. 
 
 
 
END
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 12, 2016 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)
Europa Oil & Gas (holdin... (LSE:EOG)
Graphique Historique de l'Action
De Juin 2024 à Juil 2024