Europa focuses on maturing Irish prospects to drill-ready status in 2019

UK and Ireland focused Europa Oil & Gas is working to bring its Inishkea prospects located in the Slyne Basin offshore Ireland to drill-ready status with a target of 2019 while at the same time relinquishing another licensing option located in the same basin. 

Back in March Europa started fast-tracking technical work on its flagship Inishkea prospects on LO 16/20 with the intention of delivering a new prospect inventory in H1 2019. At the time, the company’s goal was to identify a firm drilling target for an exploration well in 2020.

Europa said on Thursday, May 24 that it was concentrating its efforts on LO 16/20, adjacent to the Corrib gas field, and in particular to mature the Inishkea prospects to drill-ready status.

The 3D seismic reprocessing to pre-stack depth migration (PSDM) began in March and is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2018 with a drilling decision and drill location following shortly thereafter, subject to partnering and/or funding.

The company added that, in parallel with the reprocessing project, it commissioned drilling and environmental specialists to engage with various Irish regulatory agencies and establish the technical and regulatory pathways to enable its Inishkea prospects to be drilled with a target of 2019.

“The six gas prospects and leads in LO 16/20 that have been mapped by Europa on legacy 3D seismic data, are lower risk, in comparatively shallow water, close to gas infrastructure and with potential combined undiscovered gas initially in place (GIIP) of 2.5 TCF, represent a substantial volume of gas,” Europa said.

While the work is progressing to bring Inishkea to drill-ready status, the company decided to relinquish licensing option 16/21, also located in the Slyne Basin.

The company said that the prospectively of LO 16/21 in Atlantic Ireland was limited. Europa believes that LO 16/21 would compete poorly with other prospects in Atlantic Ireland and is unlikely to attract drilling funds in the short to medium term.

Europa decided to relinquish LO 16/21 which was approved by the Irish Minister for Communications, Climate Action, and Environment and would become effective from June 30, 2018.

The decision follows completion of the agreed work program which included a full technical assessment.

The company claims that the relinquishment will have no impact on its portfolio with gross mean un-risked prospective resources across the company’s six licenses remaining at 4.7 billion boe and 2.5 tcf undiscovered GIIP.

South Porcupine Basin

Europa added on Thursday that technical work continues across its four licenses in the South Porcupine basin. PSDM reprocessing of 3D seismic over FEL 1/17, 3/13, and 2/13 was completed on schedule and on budget.

Interpretation of the new data and creation of an updated prospect inventory is underway. The updated prospect inventory for FEL 3/13 will be announced during the second quarter 2018.

Hugh Mackay, Europa CEO, said: “Europa is focused on taking the Inishkea prospects in LO 16/20 to drill-ready status and is actively investigating the feasibility of drilling what could be a company-making exploration well in 2019 or 2020.

“We will not hesitate to exercise technical and commercial judgment and rationalize the portfolio where required. Having fulfilled our work program on LO 16/21, we have elected to relinquish and concentrate our technical resources on the remaining six very high impact exploration licenses in our Atlantic Margin portfolio.”