UK oil & gas firm gets more time for technical studies and partner search off Ireland

January 29, 2024, by Melisa Čavčić

UK-headquartered and AIM-listed oil and gas player Europa Oil & Gas has got an extension for a license offshore Ireland from the Irish government’s Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC). This enables the company to carry out further technical studies and allows more time for new partners to be secured in a bid to advance the development of the license.

Europa Oil & Gas holds one exploration license offshore Ireland, which has two principal prospects, the largest of which has the potential to host gross mean un-risked prospective resources of 1.5 TCF gas. The firm’s Inishkea West gas prospect in the Slyne Basin has been classified as a lower risk due to its proximity to the producing Corrib gas field and associated gas processing infrastructure.

Europa Oil & Gas confirmed in November 2022 that it was working on finding a farm-in partner for its FEL 4/19 license after Irish authorities granted the firm consent to extend the first phase of the license until January 31, 2024. The Irish minister’s consent to extend Phase 1 of FEL 4/19 to January 31, 2026, comes months after the UK firm decided to temporarily halt the farm-out process for the license until the subsurface imaging of the identified prospects was boosted further by reprocessing the data at 30Hz.

Will Holland, Chief Executive Officer of Europa, commented: “I am delighted that our application has been granted and that we can continue with further technical studies of the license and seeking a project partner. FEL 4/19 contains the large 1.5 TCF, low-risk Inishkea West gas prospect which is a strategic asset that can potentially provide a reliable source of low-emission energy for Ireland and play a key role in the transition to renewable green power.

“Given the proximity to existing infrastructure, a discovery at Inishkea West could be brought online quickly and would reduce Ireland’s reliance on imported gas. Domestic gas from Inishkea West would have significantly lower carbon emissions than imported gas from the UK, Norway or further afield. We look forward to working constructively with DECC as we seek to progress FEL 4/19 to drilling, and to attract additional partners to this prospective license.”

At the end of December 2023, Europa Oil & Gas acquired a 42.9% interest in Antler Global, which holds an 80% interest in the EG08 PSC offshore Equatorial Guinea, containing an estimated gross mean un-risked 1.4 trillion cubic feet of gas prospective resources that can be tested with a single well with a 92% chance of success.