Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc /
Index: AIM / Epic: EOG / Sector: Oil & Gas
4 December 2018
Europa Oil &
Gas (Holdings) plc (‘Europa’ or ‘the Company’)
Annual General
Meeting Statement
Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc, the AIM quoted UK and
Ireland-focussed oil and gas
exploration and production company, is holding its Annual General
Meeting (‘AGM’) later today. At the meeting, Simon Oddie, Chairman of Europa, will make the
following statement:
“Europa holds a multi-stage portfolio of production, development
and exploration assets in the UK as well as an industry-leading
licence position offshore Ireland,
one which is exposed to the same plays being targeted by major
operators in the upcoming round of drilling that is due to commence
in 2019.
“Europa has played an active role in offshore Ireland exploration in recent years and we
intend to continue to do so. With this in mind, considerable
progress has been made over the last twelve months towards
delivering on our goal to drill our first well offshore
Ireland in 2020. Over and above
our excellent work in Ireland,
however, the last twelve months have demonstrated the importance of
having a diversified portfolio of projects, not only in terms of
stage of development, but also in terms of jurisdiction. Here
too, progress has been made, specifically with regards to adding a
third territory of interest to our portfolio.
“Offshore Ireland, a successful technical work programme focused
on identifying and de-risking multiple targets across our licences
using state of the art 3D seismic data resulted in a more than 50%
increase in gross mean unrisked resources. This substantial step-up
is all the more impressive when one considers last year’s AGM
Statement made reference to the circa 4 billion barrels of oil and
1.5 TCF of gas that, by that point, we had identified across these
same licences. Today, the numbers stand at 6.4 billion
barrels of oil equivalent and 2.5 tcf of GIIP. It is numbers
like these that help to explain why blue-chip operators are
investing heavily in exploration projects in the region.
“The technical work we undertook could well have resulted in a
substantial downgrade to last year’s eye-catching volumetrics or
even kill, at a stroke, the various prospects and plays on our
licences. Instead, not only have all our targets remained
intact and the volumetrics increased substantially, but a number of
lower grade leads have been reclassified as prospects. This
is a major achievement and one that has caught the attention of the
blue-chip operators we are looking to partner with to take these
prospects to the next stage: drilling. As announced on
20 November 2018, we are currently
negotiating farm-in agreements with a major international oil and
gas company in respect of LO 16/20 in the Slyne Basin and Frontier
Exploration Licences (‘FEL’) 1/17 and 3/13 in the South Porcupine
Basin which, subject to a successful conclusion, could result in
Europa having material interests in up to three high impact
wells.
“In tandem with these farm-out negotiations, we have commenced
planning to drill a well targeting our flagship Inishkea Prospect
on LO16/20 in the Slyne Basin in 2020. The decision to
upgrade Inishkea to flagship status during the year was an easy
one: a robust geological model based on a gas play that has been
proved up by the nearby producing Corrib field and the Shell
18/20-7 gas discovery well drilled in 2010; close proximity to
infrastructure; relatively low drilling costs due to shallow water
depths; and the growing importance of gas in Ireland’s energy mix.
Our target drill date for Inishkea is 2020 and shareholders
can expect further updates on our plans over the course of the next
12 months.
“While major milestones were chalked up across our Irish
portfolio in 2018, the same cannot be said for our UK onshore
assets. Our existing production benefited from rising oil
prices, generating revenues of £1.6 million during the last
financial year. We are constantly looking to maximise our existing
production, and we have a number of initiatives underway focused on
achieving just that. However, efforts to scale up output both by
bringing the Wressle oil discovery in North Lincolnshire on line
and by drilling the conventional Holmwood prospect in the Weald
Basin, proved fruitless following unfavourable decisions at the
council and governmental levels respectively. We remain
optimistic that Wressle will eventually be brought into production
at a gross rate of 500 bopd, even after the disappointing decision
by the Council’s planning committee to refuse permission despite a
recommendation from its own professional planning officer.
However, following the decision by the Secretary of State for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs not to renew the lease for the
drill site at Bury Hill Wood, we took the decision to withdraw our
application to extend planning permission to drill Holmwood. We are
evaluating PEDL143’s remaining prospectivity ahead of developing a
forward plan.
“Our experience onshore UK during 2018 has vindicated the
Board’s decision to add a third territory to our portfolio.
Over the course of the year, we have evaluated a number of
potential projects in several new jurisdictions and, as announced
on 20 November 2018, we are pursuing
a new venture opportunity in Morocco to further diversify our asset
base. By next year’s AGM Statement, I am confident Europa
will not only have a clear line of sight towards the drilling of at
least one potentially transformational well offshore Ireland, but also have a portfolio of assets
in at least three jurisdictions, all at various stages of
development and all contributing to our growing pipeline of
opportunities offering significant re-rating potential.”
* * ENDS * *
For further information please visit 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 2018 Europa produced 94 boepd. Its highly
prospective exploration projects include the Wressle development in
the UK (targeting production start-up in 2019 at 500 bopd gross)
and six licences offshore Ireland
with the potential to host gross mean un-risked prospective
resources of 6.4 billion barrels oil equivalent and 2.5 tcf
undiscovered GIIP across all six 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.