Atlantic Petroleum buys into Norwegian Sea licence

P/F Atlantic Petroleum has decided to acquire 15%  participating interest in PL528/PL528B licences in the Norwegian Sea from Rocksource ASA.

Centrica is operator of the licence with an equity interest of 40%. Other licence partners are Statoil 35% and Rocksource 10% (post-deal).

The PL528 licence contains the Ivory prospect sanctioned for drilling in the second half of 2014. The Ivory prospect is gas prone with Direct Hydrocarbon Indicator (DHI) support. It is adjacent to the Statoil-operated Aasta Hansteen field development which is due to come on stream in 2017. Rocksource currently carries a pre-drill resource range estimate of up to 306 mmboe. Numerous other prospects have been identified within the licence. The agreement is subject to approval by the Norwegian Government.

Atlantic Petroleum has defined the Aasta Hansteen area in the Norwegian Sea as one of the key areas for future exploration. This links to the strategic decision made to establish the Aasta Hansteen field as a hub for gas in the area, thus allowing the establishment of a new gas province. Through this farm-in agreement and participation in the 22nd concession round and the APA 2014, the Company has secured a significant ownership interest in four licences in this part of the Norwegian Sea.

Ben Arabo, CEO, commented: “We are pleased to add significant ownership in yet another licence in the Aasta Hansteen area. We believe that the area carries significant potential and we are now positioned to take advantage of this potential with the 15% ownership in PL528/528B and the 30% ownership in licences PL763, PL704 and PL705. The significant ownership allows investigation into future deal structures that can both bring new exploration opportunities to the table and also reduce exploration cost.”

 Jonny Hesthammer, MD in Atlantic Petroleum Norge, commented: “The Ivory prospect is a large structure. Earlier this year, the Company secured access to electromagnetic (EM) data over the licence and our technical staff has spent several months analyzing the data together with other available geological and geophysical information. The results from these studies are encouraging and Atlantic Petroleum is of the opinion that a discovery with the Ivory well has a clear potential to be a company maker. A discovery on the Ivory structure will also have significant impact for the other prospects in the licence as well as for the other acreage the Company has ownership to in the area.”