Serica Acquires East Irish Sea Block

Serica Energy plc   has been offered a Traditional Licence in the latest stage of the 27th Offshore Licensing Round, announced by the Department of Energy and Climate Change on Friday 29 November.

Block 113/22 in the East Irish Sea has been offered to a group in which Serica has a 35% interest and is operator for the group. This block is adjacent to Serica Block 113/27c, which contains the Doyle Triassic gas prospect, a fault and dip closed structure which possibly extends into the newly awarded licence. Work commitments include obtaining 150 kilometres of 2D seismic data and a drill or drop decision on a well within 3 years.

In June 2013, Serica announced that it had agreed to farm-out its interest in Blocks 113/26b & 113/27c to Hydrocarbon Resources Limited (“HRL”), a subsidiary of Centrica, in return for HRL meeting Serica’s share of the costs of drilling a well in the Doyle prospect up to a gross well cost of US$17 million. The farm-out agreement extends to the new licence offered. As a result, Serica will have a 20% interest both in the new licence offered and in Blocks 113/26b & 27c on completion of the farm-out and will be carried on the well. A site survey has been completed and the well is planned for late 2014.

The participants in the new licence award are:

Serica Energy (UK) Limited – Operator 35%

Hydrocarbon Resources Limited (a subsidiary of Centrica) 30%

MPX Limited 25%

Agora Limited (a subsidiary of Cairn Energy) 10%

Tony Craven Walker, Chairmanand Interim CEO, commented:

“We are pleased with this award which will enable the group to push forward with drilling operations to evaluate the Doyle prospect. Agreement is needed between the group and the operator of a nearby wind-farm project before drilling can commence and efforts are being made to bring these to an early conclusion.”

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Press Release, December 03, 2013