Europa Oil & Gas boosted by Shell’s old well data (Ireland)

Europa Oil & Gas believes its offshore block in the Slyne Basin offshore Ireland might hold more than 2.5 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas in place.

The UK and Ireland focused company has based its claims on the analysis of legacy 3D data, and on the recently released data of Shell’s exploration well drilled nearby in 2010. Europa’s block LO 16/20 sits close to Shell’s producing Corrib gas field.

Shell’s 2010 well drilled into Corrib North prospect located in what is now Europa’s LO 16/20. The Well penetrated a 70m gas column in the same Triassic sandstone reservoir as the Corrib field, but as it was terminated in the reservoir, the gas column is a “gas down to.”

Based on mapping, Europa believes the full gas column at Corrib North has the potential to be 170 meters thick and the surface area of the structure to be 5.75km2

The presence of a gas reservoir substantially de-risks Corrib North and other significant undrilled prospective gas-bearing structures on the license, including the Foyle, Foyle North and Foyle West prospects ~16km north west of Corrib, Europa said.

According to Europa, with the estimated 2.5 tcf of gas in place, work is in progress to estimate the prospective resources arising from this gas in place and these are anticipated to be significantly more than the 1 tcf prospective resources (1.4 tcf gas in place) previously mapped on the licence.

The Well was not production tested, however there is good evidence on log data to suggest the presence of gas.

“The Foyle prospects in particular have stood up to detailed scrutiny and mapping indicates a gas in place in excess of 2 tcf.”

Europa’s CEO, Hugh Mackay, said: “This work by Europa validates the early technical promise shown when we made our licence application. The Foyle prospects in particular have stood up to detailed scrutiny and mapping indicates a gas in place in excess of 2 tcf. In addition, we are pleased to identify proven gas in Corrib North, which not only significantly de-risks this structure, but also the Foyle prospects.

He said the company was working with a subsurface and production engineering consultancy to estimate of prospective and possibly contingent resources. The company expects to provide an update on this in the first half of 2018.

“In addition, we are sufficiently encouraged to commit to conducting PSDM reprocessing of the legacy 3D seismic and mature the prospects to drillable prospect status,” Mackay said.

“Whilst there is a popular conception that Atlantic Ireland is deep water, high risk frontier exploration this is not true of the Slyne Basin where the multiple prospects we have identified in LO 16/20 are mostly in relatively shallow water (400-600m) and represent lower risk exploration and appraisal close to the producing Corrib gas field. LO16/20, along with LO16/21 which is also located in the Slyne Basin, are a key component of our industry-leading licence position offshore Ireland.

“This includes seven licences that cover an area of 5,818 sq km, six play types, three basins and contain over 30 prospects and leads that potentially hold gross mean unrisked prospective resources of 4.7 billion barrels of oil and 1.5 tcf of gas.”