Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc /
Index: AIM / Epic: EOG / Sector: Oil & Gas
18 September 2019
Europa Oil &
Gas (Holdings) plc (‘Europa’ or ‘the Company’)
Award of Large
Exploration Licence, Offshore Morocco
Highlights
- Eight-year licence covering large, under-explored area of
Agadir Basin
- Focus is Lower Cretaceous fan sand play, a prolific producer in
West Africa
- Initial, low cost, work programme to mature large stacked,
250MMBO plus prospects already identified on 3D seismic to
drillable status ahead of farm-out
Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc, oil and gas exploration,
development and production company with assets in UK and
Ireland, is pleased to announce
that it has been awarded a new Exploration Permit (‘Inezgane
Offshore Permit’ or ‘the Licence’), covering an area of 11,228 sqkm
in the Agadir Basin, offshore Morocco. A formal letter of award from
the Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines (‘ONHYM’) is
expected shortly and, following confirmation of its acceptance,
Europa will be assigned a 75% interest in, and operatorship of, the
Licence with ONHYM holding the remaining 25% interest.
Europa’s focus in the Inezgane Permit is on the Lower Cretaceous
fan sand play, which is a prolific producer in West Africa. Europa has identified that
the key elements required for a working hydrocarbon system, namely
source, reservoir and seal, are all present in the Licence area.
In addition, a number of large structural traps located on
the edges and above salt diapirs have already been identified
throughout the permit area. Europa plans to mature several of
these stacked prospects, which each have the potential to hold over
250 million barrels of oil, to drillable status with a view to
attracting one or more farminees to drill an exploration well in
the second phase of the Licence.
The Licence, which lies in water depths of between 600 and
2,000m, has an eight-year term and
comprises three phases. During the two-year initial phase, Europa
will undertake a work programme, which includes reprocessing 1,300
km2 of 3D seismic data, as well as other technical
studies. At the end of the initial phase, Europa will have
the option to commit to drilling an exploration well in the second
phase or to relinquish the Licence.
To date, only 10 wells have been drilled in deepwater
Morocco, of which only three have
penetrated a complete Lower Cretaceous section. Given the deepwater
basins extend for some 1,800 kilometres offshore Morocco, it is clear that the play is highly
under-explored. If the Lower Cretaceous play can be successfully
unlocked, enormous upside lies within the rest of the Licence
area.
A presentation providing further details on the Inezgane
Offshore Permit will shortly be uploaded onto the Company’s website
at http://www.europaoil.com/presentations.aspx
Europa's CEO, Hugh Mackay,
said: “The Inezgane Permit in Morocco is an excellent technical fit with
Europa’s substantial licence position in the Porcupine Basin in
Ireland where, among other plays,
we are also targeting the Lower Cretaceous, a prolific producer in
West Africa. In terms of our
investment criteria, Morocco ticks
all the boxes: a stable country with a transparent business
environment; excellent fiscal terms; and low political and
regulatory risk. From a technical, commercial and strategic
perspective Morocco therefore
represents an obvious new country for Europa’s technical team to
deploy the first-rate knowledge and understanding of Lower
Cretaceous plays it has gained through its work across our
industry-leading licence position in offshore Ireland.
“We very much look forward to working with ONHYM in the initial
phase of the Licence to mature prospects, which have the potential
to hold up to 250MMBO each, to drillable status over the next
2-years. Together with our well-established positions in
Ireland and the UK, we now have
multiple work streams underway concurrently, all of which have the
potential to generate significant value for our shareholders.
With this in mind, I look forward to providing further
updates on our progress.”
Qualified Person Review
This release has been reviewed by Hugh
Mackay, Chief Executive of Europa, who is a petroleum
geologist with over 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.
The information communicated in this
announcement contains inside information for the purposes of
Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014.
* * 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 |
Camille Gochez |
finnCap Ltd |
+ 44 (0) 20 7220 0500 |
Frank Buhagiar |
St Brides Partners Ltd |
+ 44 (0) 20 7236 1177 |
Juliet Earl |
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 2020 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 1.5 tcf gas
across all six licences. The Company’s flagship project offshore
Ireland is the Inishkea prospect –
a near field gas exploration project with 1.5 trillion cubic feet
(‘TCF’) gross mean un-risked prospective gas resources.