Europa Oil & Gas to fast-track Inishkea prospect work (Ireland)

Europa Oil & Gas has decided to fast-track technical work on the Inishkea prospects in LO 16/20 offshore Ireland, aiming to identify a firm drilling target for an exploration well in 2020.

The LO 16/20 is located in the Slyne basin and near the Corrib gas field, the company’s flagship project in Ireland.

Within the license, Europa mapped the Corrib North, Corrib Northwest, Bofin lead, Inishkea, Inishkea West, Inishkea Northwest on legacy 3D seismic data originally acquired in 2002 which the company purchased from the Irish government.

Europa said on Wednesday that it was seeking to fast-track technical work on Inishkea with the intention of delivering a new prospect inventory in H1 2019. The company added that it was also looking to identify a firm drilling target for an exploration well in 2020.

Explaining the reasoning behind pushing the development of prospects in LO 16/20, Europa said: “The Triassic Gas hydrocarbon play is well understood and proven to work both technically and commercially in the Slyne basin by the Corrib gas field. Therefore, play risk is lower than in other Atlantic Ireland basins where play risk remains to be conclusively proven by a commercially successful exploration discovery.

“We believe 2.5 tcf of undiscovered gas initially in place (GIIP) is likely to translate into commercially significant prospective resources. We understand that the recovery factor at the Corrib field is around 80 percent.”

Water depths at the site is 400-600 meters and drilling does not require a harsh environment sixth generation drillships and drill at lower drill costs. According to Europa, a drilling cost estimate for exploration well 18/19-A on the Inishkea prospect and dry hole cost including mobilization and demobilization is $28 million using a prevailing rig rate of $120,000 per day.

Europa added that gas infrastructure was already present nearby at Corrib, so a fast-track path to commercialization is potentially available.

Seismic work on LO 16/20

The company added that it started this work with DownUnder GeoSolutions to reprocess 3D seismic data through a pre-stack depth migration process. The additional clarity this will provide should enable some of the prospects to be upgraded to drillable status during H1 2019.

More legacy 3D seismic data over the Corrib field will become available in the public domain in May and December 2018. The new data are ocean bottom cable 3D seismic data acquired in 2012 and 2013. It will improve the definition of the Corrib field and also extend over the Corrib North gas discovery, which lies within LO 16/20.

In Europa’s estimate, the Inishkea prospect complex is less deeply buried than the Corrib field, suggesting that Inishkea’s recovery factors should be at least as good as Corrib.

The company is also evaluating the 18/20-7 gas discovery well on the Corrib North prospect. The outcome of this work will be used together with the new PSDM mapping to make a prospect selection and drill decision during Q1 2019.