Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc /
Index: AIM / Epic: EOG / Sector: Oil & Gas
22 August 2016
Europa Oil &
Gas (Holdings) plc (‘Europa’ or ‘the Company’)
Technical
Update on Licensing Option 16/22, Offshore Ireland
Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc, the AIM listed oil and gas
exploration, development and production company focused on
Europe, is pleased to provide
detailed technical information on the recently awarded Licensing
Option (‘LO’) 16/22. Europa has a 100% interest in, and is
operator of, seven licences in the Atlantic basins offshore
Ireland including LO 16/22, which
covers 992km2 in the Padraig Basin.
Highlights
- Gross mean un-risked indicative resources in the range of
300-600 million barrels of oil equivalent
- Padraig Basin is a remnant Jurassic basin on the eastern margin
of the Rockall Trough
- Most relevant analogue is the conjugate margin play offshore
Newfoundland in the Flemish Pass
Basin
- Good quality 1998 2-D seismic suggests structures of
significant size
- Multiple leads mapped in water depths ranging from 800-2,000m
in both Pre-rift and Syn-rift hydrocarbon plays
- Strategy to expedite exploration by securing a farm-in partner
with which to reprocess historic 2-D seismic over LO 16/22 and to
mature leads to drillable prospect status
Europa CEO Hugh Mackay said,
“Following Statoil’s exploration success at the play-opening Bay du
Nord oil discovery in the Flemish Pass basin offshore Newfoundland there is considerable industry
interest in Flemish Pass analogues being found offshore west
Ireland. Whilst most of the
industry is currently focused on exploring for this play in the
South Porcupine basin our
restoration of the conjugate margin prior to Atlantic seafloor
spreading suggests the possibility that the Padraig basin may be a
better fit with the Flemish Pass basin.
“The potential of the Flemish Pass play in Ireland is currently being pioneered in the
South Porcupine basin by the oil
majors. If they achieve exploration success we expect there
will be clear technical read across to, and potentially de-risking
of, our Padraig licence and in due course this might encourage a
second phase of drilling in the perched basins on the Rockall
margin. Whilst the Padraig Basin play is currently at an
early exploration stage and at the higher risk end of the
exploration spectrum, we have a work programme to de-risk this
evolving play. In particular we are hopeful that successful
reprocessing of historic 2-D seismic might allow us to mature
existing leads to drillable prospect status at comparatively low
cost and without the necessity to acquire new seismic data.”
A map can be found on Europa’s website detailing the location of
all seven of Europa’s offshore Ireland licences. Please click on the
link below or copy and paste this into your browser:
http://www.europaoil.com/documents/160607EuropaIrishLicences_002.pdf.
An updated concession map can be found on the Department of
Communications, Climate Action and Environment (DCCAE) website
at:
http://www.dccae.gov.ie/natural-resources/SiteCollectionDocuments/Oil-and-Gas-Exploration-and-Production/A0_Concession_Map_Jul2016.pdf.
Further Information
LO 16/22 was awarded to Europa as part of Phase 2 of the 2015
Atlantic Margin Licensing Round (see announcements of 3 June and
8 June 2016).
The duration of LO 16/22 is three years, effective from
1 June 2016. Following the
completion of a work programme, Europa has the option to apply to
the Irish authorities for their consent to convert the LO into a
full Frontier Exploration Licence (‘FEL’).
During the period of the Licensing Option Europa will further
mature the prospect inventory and will seek a farm-in partner with
which to convert to an FEL, reprocess a 2-D seismic survey and in
due course drill an exploration well (subject to a positive
technical and commercial outcome from the 2-D seismic reprocessing,
prospect mapping and prospect inventory).
The licence lies on the eastern margin of the Rockall basin.
It contains a number of exploration leads in water depths of
800-2,000m. The licence is some 300km west of the Irish coast
and some 150km to the west of the Spanish Point and Burren
discoveries. Whilst the location offers some logistical
challenges these are considered no more difficult than the western
flank of the South Porcupine basin
where substantial exploration activity is already taking place.
The Pre-rift oil play comprises Lower and Middle Jurassic
sandstone reservoirs in large tilted fault block structures with
Jurassic source rocks. It is also possible that the Triassic
gas play could be developed, however, oil would be the preferred
hydrocarbon type in this location.
The Syn-rift play comprises Upper Jurassic source rocks that
provide the pre-eminent source rock around the North Atlantic
hydrocarbon province commonly charging both Pre-rift reservoirs and
Upper Jurassic shallow marine, fan, and slope apron sandstone
reservoirs. Traps are tilted fault blocks.
There are a number of relevant historic 2-D seismic surveys
available over the licence. The most important data set was
shot for Phillips Petroleum in 1998. These data are of good
intrinsic quality and would, the Company believes, respond well to
modern reprocessing. It is hoped that a successful outcome to
seismic reprocessing of the 2-D data could mature leads to
drillable prospect status without the necessity for acquisition of
new seismic data.
In due course Europa will seek a farm-in partner with which to
reprocess seismic, mature leads to drillable prospect status and,
if justified, drill a Padraig basin exploration well. The
immediate priority is to farm-out Europa’s South Porcupine licences FELs 2/13 and 3/13
and LOs 16/2 and 16/19.
Flemish Pass Basin
The Flemish Pass basin is located in the Atlantic Ocean some
400km east of St John’s in Newfoundland,
Canada. It is adjacent to the Jeanne d’Arc basin which
hosts oil production from the Hibernia, White Rose and Hebron fields in shallow water depths.
Water depths in the Flemish Pass basin range from 500-1,500m
and environmental conditions are considered harsh. The
Flemish Pass play comprises Syn-rift Jurassic sandstone reservoirs
in structural traps with closely associated contemporaneous source
rocks.
Whilst exploration drilling has been conducted in the basin
since the 1980s it was not until Statoil’s Bay du Nord oil
discovery in 2013 that exploration activity substantially
increased. In 2013 Bay du Nord was reported as potentially holding
resources of 300-600 million barrels of oil equivalent and was
considered to be the largest exploration discovery in the world
that year.
This exploration success stimulated further exploration
activity. Statoil undertook a nine well drilling campaign
including exploration and appraisal drilling. Two new
discoveries were made at Bay du Verde and Baccalieu and it was
reported that the volumes at Bay du Nord were within the
original volume estimate of 300-600 million boe but potentially
toward the lower end of the range. During 2015 new
exploration licences were awarded to mostly major and super-majors
including Statoil, Exxon, Chevron, BP, BG and Nexen. Work
programmes to the value of C$1.9
billion were committed to and including cash payments of
C$450 million. Some of these
companies have also recently been awarded licences in the
South Porcupine Basin in
Ireland and it seems reasonable to
assume that their technical insights from Flemish Pass may have
influenced their applications in Ireland.
Prior to seafloor spreading and the creation of the North
Atlantic, Ireland and Canada were joined together and formed part of
the same conjugate margin. As the North Atlantic began to
spread open, various sedimentary basins were created and into which
were deposited sandstones reservoirs and mudstone source rocks.
In some of the basins such as Flemish Pass the combination of
reservoir, source and trap has been found by exploration drilling
in the right circumstances to deliver potentially commercial
hydrocarbon discoveries. In other basins such as the South Porcupine whilst the “ingredients” of
reservoir, trap and source are known to exist individually the lack
of exploration drilling means than they have not yet been found
combined in a potentially commercial discovery, were these to
exist.
Atlantic basin portfolio
Europa has seven licences in three basins in the Atlantic basins
offshore Ireland. The
combined gross mean un-risked prospective and indicative resources
of more than 4 billion boe and 1.5 TCF gas.
|
|
|
|
|
gross mean un-risked prospective and indicative
resources |
Licence |
Europa
equity |
area
km2 |
Basin |
Term |
Oil
millon boe |
Gas
TCF |
FEL 2/13 |
100% operator |
768 |
South Porcupine |
Phase 1 of 15 yr |
595 |
|
FEL 3/13 |
100% operator |
782 |
South Porcupine |
Phase 1 of 15 yr |
1,500 |
|
LO 16/2 |
100% operator |
523 |
South Porcupine |
2 yr |
895 |
|
LO 16/19 |
100% operator |
976 |
South Porcupine |
2 yr |
700 |
|
LO 16/20 |
100% operator |
945 |
Slyne Basin |
3 yr |
|
1 |
LO 16/21 |
100% operator |
832 |
Slyne Basin |
3 yr |
|
0.5 |
LO 16/22 |
100% operator |
992 |
Padraig |
3 yr |
500 |
|
|
total |
5,818 |
|
|
4,190 |
1.5 |
* * ENDS * *
For further information please visit http://www.europaoil.com/
or contact:
Hugh Mackay |
Europa |
+ 44 (0) 20 7224 3770 |
Phil Greenhalgh |
Europa |
+ 44 (0) 20 7224 3770 |
Matt Goode |
finnCap Ltd |
+ 44 (0) 20 7220 0500 |
Simon Hicks |
finnCap Ltd |
+ 44 (0) 20 7220 0500 |
Frank Buhagiar |
St Brides Partners Ltd |
+ 44 (0) 20 7236 1177 |
Susie Geliher |
St Brides Partners Ltd |
+ 44 (0) 20 7236 1177 |
Notes
Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc has a diversified portfolio
of multi-stage hydrocarbon assets that includes production,
exploration and development interests, in countries that are
politically stable, have transparent licensing processes, and offer
attractive terms. In 2015 Europa produced 141 boepd.
Its highly prospective exploration projects include the Wressle
development (targeting production start-up in H2 2016 at up to 500
bopd gross) in the UK; 100% owned gas exploration prospect (107
bcf) and appraisal project (CPR 277 bcf) in onshore France, a joint venture with Vermilion Energy
also in onshore France; and seven
licences offshore Ireland with the
potential to host gross mean un-risked prospective and indicative
resources of more than 4 billion barrels oil equivalent and 1.5 tcf
gas across all seven licences.
Qualified Person Review
This release has been reviewed by Hugh
Mackay, Chief Executive of Europa, who is a petroleum
geologist with 30 years' experience in petroleum exploration and a
member of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain, American Association of
Petroleum Geologists and Fellow of the Geological Society. Mr
Mackay has consented to the inclusion of the technical information
in this release in the form and context in which it appears.