The Irish government has extended phase 1 of Frontier Exploration Licences (FEL) 2/13 and 3/13 by two years to 4 July 2019, operator Europa Oil & Gas announced on 19 June.
The Irish government has also approved an application to convert Licensing Option (LO) 16/2 to a Frontier Exploration Licence (FEL 1/17). Europa has a 100% interest in all three licences which are in the South Porcupine basin, offshore Ireland.
The work programs on all three licences will include pre-stack depth migration (PSDM) of 3D seismic data, which was previously acquired in 2013. The objective of this work is to mature existing prospects and leads, particularly in the pre-rift and syn-rift plays, to drill ready status. The work may also de-risk existing drill-ready prospects in the Cretaceous fan play. PSDM reprocessing over FEL 3/13 and LO 16/2 (to become FEL 1/17) has started, and a similar work program over FEL 2/13 is in preparation, all funded by Europa's recent placing and open offer.
Gross mean un-risked prospective resources associated with these licences are tabulated below:
|
Licence |
No. of prospects & leads |
Gross mean un-risked prospective resources mmboe |
|
FEL 3/13 |
3 |
1492 |
|
LO 16/2 |
3 |
898 |
|
FEL 2/13 |
9 |
1124 |
Europa CEO Hugh Mackay said: “Following government approval we will immediately start the work programs on these licences in the South Porcupine basin. PSDM reprocessing work is already underway to mature prospects and leads particularly in the syn-rift and pre-rift play, as we look to deliver on our target to upgrade at least six of our existing inventory of 32 offshore Ireland prospects to drill-ready status. This work may also further de-risk our existing drill-ready prospects in the Cretaceous fan play.
“As a consequence of our recent oversubscribed placing for £2.1 million with new and existing institutions and our very well subscribed open offer raising a further £1.3 million, we are fully funded to undertake all our work programs in Atlantic Ireland immediately and concurrently. Together with the anticipated start up of exploration drilling elsewhere in the South Porcupine these are exciting times for Atlantic Ireland and for Europa in particular.”
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