Update on Wressle

Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc / Index: AIM / Epic: EOG / Sector: Oil & Gas

22 November 2018

Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc (‘Europa’ or ‘the Company’)

Update on Wressle, North Lincolnshire

Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc, the UK and Ireland focused oil and gas exploration, development and production company, notes today’s update from Egdon Resources (‘Egdon’) that its application for planning consent for the development of the Wressle oil field on PEDL 180 in the East Midlands (‘the Application’) has received a recommendation for approval (subject to conditions) from North Lincolnshire Council’s Planning Officer.  Europa has a 30% working interest in Wressle alongside Egdon (operator, 30%), Union Jack Oil (27.5%), and Humber Oil & Gas Limited (12.5%) (‘the Joint Venture partners’).  

The Application will be considered by a meeting of the North Lincolnshire Council Planning Committee on 28 November 2018.

Europa's CEO, Hugh Mackay, said: “The Planning Officer’s recommendation to the Council to approve the application for planning consent for the development of Wressle is testament to the comprehensive work that has been undertaken to address all outstanding issues.  Wressle has the potential to more than double Europa’s net production to over 200bopd.  As a result, we are keen to get Wressle into production as soon as possible and with this in mind, we are looking forward to the Planning Committee meeting later this month.”

Egdon`s RNS published today is as follows:

Egdon Resources plc (AIM:EDR) is pleased to advise that its application for planning consent for the Wressle Development has received a recommendation for approval (subject to Conditions) from North Lincolnshire Council’s Planning Officer. 

This application will be considered by a meeting of the North Lincolnshire Council Planning Committee on 28 November 2018.

Mark Abbott, Managing Director of Egdon Resources plc, said: “I am very pleased that the Council’s Planning Officer has recommended approval of the proposed Wressle development, having diligently considered the significant body of additional work and improvements submitted as part of the application.

The Planning Officer was clear in his report where he stated “it is considered that this new application addresses the concerns raised at the public inquiry and that, as a result of the additional ground investigation, site reconfiguration and improved pollution mitigation and water monitoring arrangements, the reasons given by the Inspector for dismissing the previous appeals have been overcome. This conclusion is confirmed by the external technical experts (JBA Consulting) employed by the Council to carry out a robust review of the new application and its potential environmental impacts”.

We hope that the members of the planning committee will agree with the considered recommendation of their professional planning officer (supported in this case by specialist advisors), the various regulatory authorities and statutory consultees and approve the application at next week’s meeting.”

Planning history:

On 11 January 2017, North Lincolnshire Council (“NlC”) refused planning consent for the original application for the development of the Wressle Oil Field at Lodge Farm, Wressle, North Lincolnshire.

On 7 February 2017, Egdon announced that it would both appeal the decision of 11 January 2017 and in parallel submit a new Planning Application for the Wressle development which would include even more detailed information to address the specific concerns outlined by NLC in their refusal.

On 11 April 2017, Egdon submitted an appeal against NLC’s decision to refuse planning consent.

On 28 April 2017, Egdon submitted a new application for the Wressle Development including additional detailed information to address the specific concerns raised by NLC in its 11 January 2017 decision to refuse the original application for the development of the Wressle Oil Field.

On 19 May 2017, Egdon announced the issue by the Environment Agency of the variation to the Mining Waste Permit for the planned Wressle field development and associated operations.

On 3 July 2017, the new planning application was also refused.  The variation of the existing planning for the site requesting a twelve month extension was also refused at the same meeting.

During November 2017, a planning inquiry was held to consider the two appeals for development approval and the appeal of the variation of the existing planning for the site.  On 5 January 2018, we announced that the Inspector had rejected the appeals by Egdon against the two planning refusals by NLC’s Planning Committee.  However, the Planning Inspectorate did uphold Egdon’s appeal against the decision to refuse the application to retain the existing planning for the well site, which is was retained until the 28 April 2018.

A new application to extend the current planning consent was submitted on 13 April 2018 and refused 1 August 2018 and the company announced its intention to appeal the decision

On 5 July we announced the submission to NLC of a new planning application for the development of the Wressle oil field.

On 20 November the application for planning consent for the Wressle Development has received a recommendation for approval from NLC’s planning officers.

* * 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 6.2 billion barrels oil equivalent and 2.5 tcf undiscovered GIIP across all six licences.