Cairn gets operatorship over Irish license

Europa Oil & Gas, a UK and Ireland focused exploration, development and production company, has received consent from the Irish Government for the transfer of 70 percent interest in and operatorship of Licensing Option 16/19 to Cairn Energy.

Europa O&G said on Wednesday that the interest and operatorship would be transferred to Capricorn Ireland Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cairn Energy.

Following the transfer, Europa O&G will hold the remaining 30 percent interest in the LO 16/19 which covers approximately 976 square kilometers on the Western flank of the South Porcupine Basin, offshore Ireland.

The two agreed on the farm-out on March 8. Under the terms of the agreement, Cairn will fund Europa’s share of the Crean multiclient 3D seismic acquisition program, which will include the acquisition, processing, and interpretation of a 3D seismic survey over LO16/19.

Norwegian seismic data acquisition company TGS recently hired Shearwater to carry out the Crean 3D seismic campaign, which will cover an area of more than 5,400 square kilometers between the Porcupine High and the Irish Mainland Platform on the Irish Atlantic Margin. Subject to approval, the survey is expected to begin in June 2017 with the final processed product expected to be delivered in 2018.

Future exploration work on the license will be based on the results of detailed prospect mapping work to be carried out on the processed dataset. As far as unrisked prospective resources go, Europa previously said that several Cretaceous submarine fans within the license hold between 300 million to one billion boe.

Europa CEO Hugh Mackay said: “The farm-out of LO 16/19 demonstrates how we intend to fast-track the exploration of our industry leading position offshore Ireland by securing suitable partners with whom we can take each of our licenses forward. In line with this, we continue to talk with a number of interested parties for our remaining licenses.

“LO 16/19 is just one of seven offshore Ireland licenses we hold. All our licenses cover 5,818 square kilometers, six play types, three basins, and twenty prospects and leads which we estimate potentially hold gross mean unrisked resources of more than four billion barrels of oil equivalent and 1.5 tcf of gas. As a result, with drilling activity set to commence in the region in the near term, Europa is strategically placed to benefit from any success with the drillbit.”