Kosmos Farm-in to Europa’s Irish Licences App...
Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc / Index: AIM / Epic: EOG / Sector: Oil & Gas
13 May 2013
Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc (`Europa' or `the Company')
Kosmos farm-in to Europa's Irish licences approved by Irish Government
Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc, the AIM listed oil and gas exploration and
development company with a combination of producing and exploration assets in
Europe, is pleased to announce Irish Government consent has been received for
the transfer of interest and operatorship (`Transfer') for its two Licensing
Options LO 11/7 and LO 11/8 (`Licences'), which cover approximately 2,000 sq km
in the highly prospective South Porcupine Basin in the Irish Atlantic Margin,
to a subsidiary of the independent oil and gas exploration and production
company Kosmos Energy Ltd (`Kosmos').
The Transfer was approved by the Minister of State at the Department of
Communications, Energy and Natural Resources on 8 May 2013 and as a result,
Kosmos now holds an 85% interest in, and has assumed operatorship of, both
Licences with Europa holding the remaining 15%. As announced on 18 April 2013,
under the terms of the farm-in Kosmos will fully fund the costs of a 3-D
seismic programme on each Licence and pay 85% of costs incurred by Europa to
date.
Contingent upon an election of the companies to enter into a subsequent
exploration drilling phase on one or both of the Licensing Option areas, Kosmos
will also incur 100% of the costs of the first exploration well on each
Licensing Option. The first exploration wells on LO 11/7 and LO 11/8 have
investment caps of US$90 million and US$110 million respectively. Costs in
excess of the investment cap would be shared between Kosmos (85%) and Europa
(15%).
Kosmos, in conjunction with Europa, will now submit an application to the Irish
Government to convert each Licence into a 15 year Frontier Exploration Licence.
Europa's CEO Hugh Mackay said: "Subject to government approval for converting
the Licensing Options into full exploration licences, the next steps will
involve acquiring 3-D seismic over both blocks. We are pursuing the same
Cretaceous stratigraphic play that Kosmos pioneered in the Atlantic Margin
basins offshore West Africa. Kosmos have outstanding technical and operational
experience of exploring this play and are the ideal partner to lead our
exploration programme in the South Porcupine basin.
"The recent announcements by ExxonMobil on 23 April of the commencement of
drilling on the nearby Dunquin prospect and by Cairn Energy on 7 May regarding
their farm-in to three licences in the North Porcupine basin indicate that we
are entering an important period in offshore Ireland oil and gas exploration,
in which Europa will be playing a key role. I look forward to updating
shareholders on our progress in due course."
About LO 11/7 and LO 11/8, offshore Ireland
LO 11/7 and LO 11/8 each cover an area of approximately 1,000km2 in the highly
prospective South Porcupine basin, offshore Ireland. The Licences have been
mapped using existing 2-D seismic data and are undrilled. Europa's technical
work to date has identified two, previously unknown, prospects in the Lower
Cretaceous stratigraphic play: Mullen in LO 11/7 and Kiernan in LO 11/8 which
the Company estimates to have gross mean un-risked indicative resources of 482
million barrels of oil and 1.612 billion barrels of oil equivalent
respectively. Information about the Mullen and Kiernan prospects were provided
to the markets in previous RNS releases dated 6 November 2012 and 16 January
2013 respectively.
**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
Henrik Persson finnCap Ltd +44 (0) 20 7220 0500
Frank Buhagiar St Brides Media and Finance Ltd +44 (0) 20 7236 1177
Lottie Brocklehurst St Brides Media and Finance 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. The Company currently produces
approximately 180 boepd in the UK, generating sufficient revenues to cover
corporate overheads. Its highly prospective exploration projects include the
Wressle prospect in the UK where a well is due to be drilled later this year; a
100% owned deep gas appraisal project with a CPR assigned contingent resource
of 277bcf in onshore France; and a joint venture with leading independent
Kosmos to explore two licences in offshore Ireland in which Europa has
identified two prospects with estimated gross mean un-risked indicative
resources of 482 million barrels oil and 1.6 billion barrels oil respectively.
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