Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) Plc Director Retirement and Corporate Update

 
TIDMEOG 
 
Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc / Index: AIM / Epic: EOG / Sector: Oil & Gas 
 
          Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc ('Europa' or 'the Company') 
 
                    Director Retirement and Corporate Update 
 
Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc, the UK, Ireland and Morocco focused oil and 
gas exploration, development and production company, announces that Finance 
Director Mr Phil Greenhalgh has informed the Board of his intention to retire. 
Phil, who has been Finance Director of Europa since January 2008, has agreed to 
remain on the Board until 14 October 2020 to ensure an orderly handover of his 
duties and to complete the Group Annual Report and Accounts for the year to 31 
July 2020. 
 
The Company does not intend to appoint a replacement Finance Director at the 
current time.  Instead Phil's responsibilities will be divided and assigned to 
existing members of the team at Europa.  In line with this, Ms Alison Fuller 
will become Financial Controller and Mr Murray Johnson will assume the position 
of Company Secretary. 
 
In addition, the Board has asked Executive Chairman Mr Simon Oddie to continue 
as Interim CEO for at least a further six months. 
 
Corporate Update 
 
The Company is pleased to provide a corporate update in relation to activity 
across its portfolio of multistage licences onshore UK, offshore Ireland and 
offshore Morocco and its ongoing cost management programme as part of its 
response to COVID-19 and volatile oil and gas markets. 
 
Onshore UK - Wressle Field Development Project ('Wressle') 
 
The development of the Wressle field in North Lincolnshire, in which Europa 
holds a 30% working interest, continues according to plan with first oil on 
track to commence in H2 2020. Under the development plan, Wressle is expected 
to commence production at an initial gross rate of 500bopd, which would more 
than double Europa's existing UK onshore production to over 200bopd.  With an 
estimated breakeven oil price of US$17.6 per barrel, production at Wressle is 
expected to be very profitable at current oil prices of over US$40 per barrel. 
Further updates on progress made towards bringing Wressle into production will 
be provided to the market as and when it is appropriate to do so. 
 
Offshore Ireland - Inishkea and Edge prospects in Slyne Basin 
 
Europa recently announced the conditional acquisition of a 100% interest in 
Frontier Exploration Licence ('FEL') 3/19, which holds the 1.2 tcf Edge 
prospect.  FEL 3/19 lies close to Europa's 100%-owned FEL 4/19, which holds the 
1.5 tcf Inishkea prospect, and the 1tcf producing Corrib gas field.  Both 
licences therefore provide Europa with a key strategic position in the proven 
gas play of the Slyne basin. 
 
The acquisition of FEL 3/19 is subject to regulatory sign-off and once this has 
been received the Company intends to undertake a comprehensive evaluation of 
the technical data covering the licence.  Following this, the forward plan is 
to launch the farmout process for both licences in the Slyne Basin.  Ahead of 
the formal launch of the farmout, the Company is in discussions with several 
interested parties. 
 
The Company notes the cessation of gas production at the Kinsale Head gas 
fields in the Celtic Sea earlier this month. Following this, the Corrib gas 
field represents the only source of domestic gas production in Ireland. 
Subject to regulatory sign-off for the transfer of FEL 3/19, Europa will hold 
100% interests in what are currently the only large scale, drill-ready 
prospects in a gas play that has been significantly de-risked by the producing 
Corrib field and importantly lie close to existing processing facilities.  As a 
result, Europa classifies FELs 3/19 and 4/19 as lower risk "infrastructure-led" 
exploration. 
 
Offshore Morocco - Inezgane permit 
 
Being largely desktop based, technical work has been able to continue on the 
Inezgane permit despite COVID-19 and associated lockdowns.  This work is 
focused on reprocessing and interpreting 3D seismic data to de-risk large 
prospects in the Lower Cretaceous play, a prolific producer in West Africa. 
 The Inezgane licence area is 11,228 square kilometres, i.e. equivalent to 
about 50 UKCS North Sea blocks, or over half the size of Wales. 
 
To date this work has resulted in the mapping of 14 prospects and 16 leads, 
which the Company estimates have the potential to hold in aggregate close to 10 
billion barrels of unrisked oil resources.  The identified prospects each have 
mean resources in excess of 150 mmboe which  add up to total resources in 
excess of 5 billion barrels of oil equivalent.  The prospects have stacked 
reservoir potential and include a wide range of structural styles including for 
example 4-way dip closure in the case of the 827 mmboe Falcon and 204 mmboe 
Turtle prospects. Europa has assigned a geological chance of success to these 
prospects of 20-35%. 
 
Ongoing work is focused on further de-risking these prospects and leads while 
the forward plan is to build a robust prospect inventory and, subject to the 
results, secure partner(s) to drill wells. In tandem with this workstream, the 
Company has maintained dialogue with operators who have expressed an interest 
in Inezgane. 
 
Cost Management Programme 
 
As previously announced, in response to volatile oil markets and the impact of 
COVID-19 on the global economy, the Board, staff and consultants agreed to a 
reduction in remuneration and fees (see announcement of 31 March 2020 for 
further details).  This had been set at 20% however the Board has now elected 
to increase the reduction in their remuneration and fees to 50% from August 
2020 until further notice. The Company is also considering an award of share 
options to directors and staff and a further announcement will be made. 
 
Elsewhere, appropriate cost savings and adjustments are continuing to be made 
in the business whilst ensuring the integrity of the core strategy is 
maintained. Existing cash reserves are expected to be sufficient to finance 
current activity including the Wressle Field development.  As mentioned 
earlier, once on stream, Wressle will transform Europa's production and in turn 
its revenue profile. 
 
Simon Oddie, Interim CEO and Executive Chairman of Europa, said: "On behalf of 
the Board, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Phil for the 
considerable and invaluable contribution he has made to the Europa story over 
the last decade or so.  We wish him all the best for the future.  In Alison and 
Murray, we have two experienced employees who will be taking on Phil's finance 
and corporate responsibilities and as a result I am confident the handover 
process will prove to be seamless. We are confident that the next year promises 
to be a highly active period for Europa, with Wressle due to come on stream 
later this year, our unrivalled position in the Slyne Basin gas play set to be 
bolstered further once the transfer of FEL 3/19 is completed, and with the 
ongoing technical work offshore Morocco to date confirming Inezgane's exciting 
potential." 
 
                                 * * ENDS * * 
 
For further information please visit www.europaoil.com or contact: 
 
Simon Oddie       Europa                        + 44 (0) 20 7224 
                                                3770 
 
Phil Greenhalgh   Europa                        + 44 (0) 20 7224 
                                                3770 
 
Christopher       finnCap Ltd                   + 44 (0) 20 7220 
Raggett                                         0500 
 
Simon Hicks       finnCap Ltd                   + 44 (0) 20 7220 
                                                0500 
 
Frank Buhagiar    St Brides Partners Ltd        + 44 (0) 20 7236 
                                                1177 
 
Megan Dennison    St Brides Partners Ltd        + 44 (0) 20 7236 
                                                1177 
 
Notes 
 
Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc has a diversified portfolio of multi-stage 
hydrocarbon assets which includes production, development and exploration 
interests, in countries that are politically stable, have transparent licensing 
processes, and offer attractive terms. In terms of production, in 2019 Europa 
produced 91 boepd. Production is set to increase to over 200 boepd in H2 2020 
once the Wressle field in the UK, which is currently under development, comes 
on stream at a gross rate of 500 bopd. 
 
The Company holds four exploration licences offshore Ireland which have the 
potential to host gross mean un-risked prospective resources of 3.9 billion 
barrels oil equivalent and 2.7* trillion cubic feet ('tcf') gas (*subject to 
regulatory approval for the transfer of FEL 3/19). The Company's flagship 
projects offshore Ireland are Inishkea and Edge, two near field gas prospects 
in the Slyne Basin which the Company classifies as lower risk 
infrastructure-led exploration due to their close proximity to the producing 
Corrib gas field and associated gas processing infrastructure. In September 
2019, Europa was awarded a 75% interest in the Inezgane permit offshore 
Morocco.  Initial results of technical work have identified 30 prospects and 
leads that have the potential to hold close to 10 billion barrels of unrisked 
resources. 
 
 
 
END
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