Europa gets extension of two licenses offshore Ireland

Europa Oil & Gas has received notification from the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (DCCAE) that Phase 1 of Frontier Exploration Licenses (FEL) 2/13 and 3/13 in the South Porcupine Basin, offshore Ireland, has been extended by one year.

The company said on Tuesday that the extension is until July 4, 2017. This will allow Europa to mature existing prospects and perform detailed mapping of all potential prospective levels on both licenses, including the Pre-Rift, Syn-Rift and Tertiary plays, whilst it continues to seek a farm-out partner for drilling, the company explained.

Based on 2,500km2 of proprietary 3D seismic data, which was acquired in 2013, Europa has mapped gross mean un-risked Prospective Resources of approximately 1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent (‘boe’) in FEL 3/13 in three early Cretaceous submarine fan prospects and 595 million boe in FEL 2/13 in early Cretaceous turbidite channel prospects. Charged by mature Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous source rocks and contained in stratigraphic traps with elements of structural closure, these reservoirs are analogous to the Cretaceous play in the equatorial Atlantic Margin province which has delivered the Jubilee and Mahogany oil fields.

The 12-month extension for both licenses will also enable the company to undertake further technical analysis and mapping of potential Pre-rift and early Post-rift plays, and also generate regional paleo-geographic models for the Pre-Rift, Syn-Rift and Tertiary that will enable reservoir development and reservoir quality to be predicted.

Europa has also already mapped three Pre-rift prospects in Licensing Option (LO) 16/2 with combined gross mean unrisked prospective resources of 895 mmboe.

LO 16/2 adjoins the eastern boundary of FEL 3/13 and both licenses are covered by Europa’s proprietary 3D seismic acquired in 2013.  The company said it believes that at least one of the Pre-rift prospects in LO 16/2 extends into FEL 3/13.

Europa CEO Hugh Mackay said, “Recent discoveries offshore Newfoundland and Senegal, backed up by our own technical analysis of our proprietary 3D seismic, demonstrate the clear potential for both FEL 2/13 and 3/13 to hold new exploration plays and new exploration prospects, in addition to the Cretaceous play that we have already identified.

“Thanks to this 12 month extension, we can now investigate these further, with the aim of securing a farm out partner for drilling. Having already mapped combined gross mean un-risked prospective resources of over 2 billion boe on our 100% owned FELs 2/13 and 3/13, the Cretaceous play clearly has high exploration potential. We believe there is scope to further enhance this potential with additional plays in the Syn-rift, Pre-rift and Tertiary.

“Whilst we hope that all of these plays are proved successful in the South Porcupine basin by drilling, at this early stage in the exploration of a frontier basin, it is beneficial to have a diversity of plays in our portfolio.”