Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc /
Index: AIM / Epic: EOG / Sector: Oil & Gas
27 April 2017
Europa Oil &
Gas (Holdings) plc (‘Europa’ or ‘the Company’)
Four Significant
New Prospects Identified on Offshore Ireland Licence
Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc, the AIM traded, UK and
Ireland focused, oil and gas
exploration, development and production company, is pleased to
provide a technical update on its Frontier Exploration Licence 2/13
(‘FEL 2/13’ or ‘the Licence’) located on the west flank of the
South Porcupine Basin, offshore Atlantic Ireland. Europa’s new work
has focussed on deeper prospectivity than previously investigated.
A number of new prospects and leads have been identified, of which
the Company believes four are significant. Initial volumetrics on
two of these new targets exceed the 200 million boe threshold
Europa regards as the minimum economic field size in Atlantic
Ireland. Combined gross mean un-risked indicative and prospective
resources for the Licence now stand at 1.12 billion boe across nine
oil prospects and 3.7 TCF gas in a Triassic prospect.
New prospect “Kilroy” is a lowermost Cretaceous slope apron
deposit broadly time-equivalent to Europa’s “Wilde” prospect in FEL
3/13. It appears to be optimally located for the Lower
Cretaceous/Upper Jurassic source system identified by well 43/13-1
and implied by the Dunquin (44/23-1) well. “Keane” is a syn-rift
lead with AVO expression down-dip of oil-bearing sand stringers in
43/13-1. “Kiely” is a Middle Jurassic tilted fault block prospect
in the south-east of the Licence. This same fault block has
Triassic gas prospectivity at depth (Prospect “A-Tr”).
Previously Europa had identified four prospects: Doyle A, Doyle
B, Doyle C and Heaney with gross mean un-risked indicative and
prospective resources of 595mmboe. Following new seismic attribute
work, Europa has subdivided Doyle A into three separate prospects,
strung out along the axis of the Doyle A slope channel system.
These are now separately identified as the west, central and east
targets. Doyles B and C have not been revised at this stage.
Prospect Heaney has been eliminated.
|
|
|
Gross mean un-risked indicative and prospective
resources million boe |
Prospect/Lead |
Play |
|
Low |
Best |
High |
Mean |
Doyle A - west |
Cretaceous slope
channel |
Oil |
12 |
38 |
115 |
54 |
Doyle A- central |
Cretaceous slope
channel |
Oil |
16 |
51 |
149 |
70 |
Doyle A - east |
Cretaceous slope
channel |
Oil |
36 |
110 |
327 |
154 |
Doyle B |
Cretaceous slope
channel |
Oil |
22 |
76 |
264 |
119 |
Doyle C |
Cretaceous slope
channel |
Oil |
12 |
44 |
155 |
71 |
Kilroy Prospect |
Cretaceous slope
apron |
Oil |
18 |
85 |
369 |
159 |
Keane Lead |
Late syn-rift AVO |
Oil |
25 |
117 |
498 |
217 |
Lead F |
Early Syn-rift |
Oil |
4 |
23 |
102 |
44 |
Kiely Prospect |
Middle Jurassic tilted
fault block |
Oil |
18 |
104 |
553 |
236 |
|
|
Total
oil |
1124 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Gross mean un-risked indicative and prospective
resources bcf |
Prospect |
Play |
|
Low |
Best |
High |
Mean |
A-Tr |
Triassic |
Gas |
304 |
2016 |
8981 |
3640 |
Further technical work is required to de-risk these prospects
and leads and to upgrade them to drillable prospect status. This
will involve reprocessing the existing 3D seismic to deliver a
pre-stack depth migration product, followed by detailed geophysical
and geological interpretation.
In tandem with this work, Europa continues to talk to potential
partners with regards to farming-out an interest in FEL2/13, as
part of the Company’s strategy to farm-out its leading licence
position offshore Ireland. This comprises seven licences
covering 5,818 sq km, six play types, three basins, and twenty
prospects and leads which potentially hold gross mean unrisked
resources of more than 4 billion barrels of oil equivalent and 1.5
TCF of gas (Europa estimates). In line with the farm-out strategy,
on 8 March 2017 Europa announced an
agreement with a wholly owned subsidiary of leading operator Cairn
Energy PLC Group (LSE: CNE) in relation to a 70% interest in and
operatorship of Licensing Option 16/19.
Europa CEO Hugh Mackay said, “Our
3D seismic data continues to be a very powerful tool with which to
understand the geology, structure and petroleum systems in the
South Porcupine basin. Whilst we entered the basin in 2011 inspired
by the Cretaceous fan play our understanding continues to evolve
and in addition to the Cretaceous we have identified new plays in
the Cretaceous shelf and slope, syn-rift, post-rift and Triassic.
Given that we are at a very early stage in a large and
underexplored basin, we believe it is beneficial to have exposure
to a diversified portfolio of play types, hopefully all or some of
them will prove successful.
“The next phase of work on this licence will involve
reprocessing the existing 3D seismic to deliver better definition,
better depth control and to enable de-risking sufficient to upgrade
the prospects to drill-ready status. Atlantic Ireland is about to enter a drilling phase,
which we believe may be sustained over several years. Our
objective is to deliver six drill ready prospects with which to
trail blaze or fast follow to success. All our drill ready
prospects will be potential company makers.”
* * 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. Its highly prospective exploration projects
include the Wressle oil development in the UK and seven licences
offshore Ireland with the
potential to host gross mean un-risked prospective and indicative
resources of more than 4 billion barrels oil equivalent and 1.5 TCF
gas across all seven licences. In 2016 Europa produced 123 boepd
from its portfolio of onshore UK 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.