Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc /
Index: AIM / Epic: EOG / Sector: Oil & Gas
8 May 2017
Europa Oil &
Gas (Holdings) plc (‘Europa’ or ‘the Company’)
CPR Confirms Two
Significant Pre-Rift Prospects in Offshore Ireland Licence
Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc, the AIM traded, UK and
Ireland focused, oil and gas
exploration, development and production company, is pleased to
announce the results of an independent Competent Person’s Report
(‘CPR’) prepared by ERC Equipoise Ltd (‘ERCE’), including estimates
of gross mean un-risked Prospective Resources of 553 mmboe across
two new pre-rift prospects, Ervine and Edgeworth, in Licensing
Option (‘LO’) 16/2, offshore Atlantic Ireland. Europa has a
100% interest in LO 16/2 which is located in the South Porcupine
Basin (http://www.europaoil.com/OperationsIreland.aspx).
Highlights
- The CPR follows in-house work conducted on proprietary 3D
seismic data which identified a number of large pre-rift tilted
fault blocks, potentially analogous to the Brent Province of the
North Sea
- ERCE independently assessed the Prospective Resources
associated with two of these fault blocks, the Edgeworth and Ervine
prospects, and assigned gross mean un-risked Prospective Resources
of 251 mmboe and 302 mmboe respectively
- Both prospects are above the 200 mmboe threshold considered by
Europa to be the minimum economic field size
- Together with three Cretaceous fan prospects on Europa’s 100%
owned Frontier Exploration Licence (‘FEL’) 3/13, which adjoins LO
16/2, ERCE has audited over 2 billion boe of gross mean un-risked
Prospective Resources across five prospects: Wilde, Beckett and
Shaw in FEL 3/13 and Edgeworth and Ervine in LO 16/2
- This brings Europa’s total aggregated gross mean un-risked
Prospective Resources across its seven Irish Atlantic Margin
licences to 4.7 billion boe and 1.5 tcf of gas, using Europa’s
internal estimates for FEL 2/13, LO 16/19, LO 16/20, LO16/21 and LO
16/22
- ERCE’s estimates of Prospective Resources for Edgeworth and
Ervine are tabulated below.
LO 16/2 |
Gross Un-risked Prospective Resources
mmboe* |
Chance of success |
1 in |
|
Prospect |
|
Low |
Best |
High |
Mean |
|
Ervine |
24 |
117 |
579 |
251 |
12% |
8.0 |
|
Edgeworth |
39 |
162 |
675 |
302 |
15% |
6.9 |
|
Deterministic
Total |
63 |
279 |
1254 |
553 |
|
|
|
*million barrels of oil equivalent, using a conversion factor of
6 Mscf per stb. Gross Un-risked Prospective Resources are 100% of
the volumes estimated to be recoverable from an accumulation. The
hydrocarbon system is modelled as an oil play. However, due to the
significant uncertainties in the available geological information,
there is a possibility of gas charge.
- In addition Europa has made in-house estimates for a third
fault block in LO 16/2 named prospect PR-3. These estimates are
tabulated below.
LO 16/2 |
Gross Un-risked Prospective Resources
mmboe* |
|
Prospect |
|
Low |
Best |
High |
Mean |
|
PR3~ |
27 |
168 |
833 |
345 |
|
~Europa in-house estimates (unaudited)
- The next steps involve reprocessing the existing 3D seismic to
deliver a pre-stack depth migration product. This is expected to
de-risk all three LO 16/2 prospects and potentially upgrade them to
drillable status. It will also improve the definition of the Lower
Cretaceous Wilde, Beckett and Shaw prospects in FEL 3/13.
Europa CEO Hugh Mackay said,
“This CPR for LO 16/2 has delivered audited Prospective Resources
of 553 million boe for two new pre-rift prospects Edgeworth and
Ervine in the emerging pre-rift play in the South Porcupine Basin.
Combined with our existing CPR for the Cretaceous fan prospects in
FEL 3/13 this brings the sum of our mean audited Prospective
Resources in the basin to over 2 billion boe. The potential
resources on these two licences are very large and diversified in
terms of play type. We believe that Atlantic Ireland is about
to enter a phase of exploration drilling starting this summer.
Portfolio diversity should enable us to profit from the read
across from other companies’ success, whichever play it comes
from.
“Our target for future work on these prospects in LO 16/2 is to
undertake a programme of 3D reprocessing to further de-risk the
prospects and mature them to drillable prospect status. In parallel
with this we have an active farm-out programme underway for our
industry leading licence position offshore Atlantic Ireland which
includes LO 16/2. This is an exciting time for Europa and I look
forward to updating the market on our progress.”
Further Information
Europa’s in-house technical team conducted its own independent
prospect mapping based on proprietary 3D seismic data acquired in
2013 over what is now LO 16/2. This work identified a number
of large pre-rift tilted fault blocks, potentially analogous to the
Brent Province of the North Sea (total reserves for the Brent
Province are approximately 15 billion boe). Water depths are around
1550 m and reservoir depths are 2400-2800 m below mudline.
Sandstone reservoirs are expected to be Middle Jurassic in
age, with migration pathways identified from mature Late
Jurassic/Early Cretaceous marine source rocks deeper in the basin.
The hydrocarbon system is modelled as an oil play. However, due to
the significant uncertainties in the available geological
information there is a possibility of gas charge.
ERCE has undertaken an independent assessment of the Prospective
Resources associated with two of these fault blocks, which Europa
has named the Edgeworth and Ervine prospects. ERCE’s estimates of
Prospective Resources are tabulated above.
Edgeworth and Ervine have gross mean un-risked Prospective
Resources of 251 mmboe and 302 mmboe respectively. Both are above
the 200 mmboe threshold that Europa considers the minimum economic
field size in Atlantic Ireland. On 15
May 2015, ERCE identified combined gross mean un-risked
Prospective Resources of 1.49 billion boe across three Cretaceous
fan prospects in FEL 3/13, which adjoins LO 16/2: Wilde, Beckett
and Shaw.
The sum of the gross mean un-risked Prospective Resources for
the Wilde, Beckett, Shaw, Edgeworth and Ervine prospects in FEL
3/13 and LO 16/2 as audited by ERCE is in excess of 2 billion
boe.
Fault and reservoir imaging in the syn-rift and pre-rift of
LO16/2 on the current data set is locally problematic and forms a
significant component of the exploration risk. The next phase of
work on LO 16/2 will be reprocessing of the 2013 3D seismic data to
deliver a pre-stack depth migration product. The Company
anticipates that this will de-risk all three prospects and
potentially upgrade them to drillable prospect status. The seismic
reprocessing is also expected to deliver an uplift on the
definition of the Lower Cretaceous Wilde, Beckett and Shaw
prospects in adjacent FEL 3/13 (for further details please click on
the following links to the Company’s previous announcements:
http://www.europaoil.com/documents/150512IrishCPR.pdf
and
http://www.europaoil.com/documents/FEL313CompetentPersonsReport.pdf
).
In tandem with this work, Europa continues to talk to potential
partners with regards to farming-out an interest in LO 16/2, as
part of the Company’s strategy to farm-out its leading licence
position offshore Ireland. This comprises seven licences
covering 5,818 sq km, six play types, three basins, and over 30
prospects and leads which potentially hold gross mean un-risked
resources of more than 4 billion barrels of oil equivalent and 1.5
TCF of gas (CPR and Europa estimates). In line with the farm-out
strategy, on 8 March 2017 Europa
announced an agreement with a wholly owned subsidiary of leading
operator Cairn Energy PLC Group (LSE: CNE) in relation to a 70%
interest in and operatorship of Licensing Option
16/19.
The CPR document for LO 16/2 will not be released into the
public domain at this stage for reasons of confidentiality.
Following the very successful 2015 Atlantic Ireland licensing round
Europa now has competitor companies both to the north and south of
LO 16/2 and FEL 3/13:
(http://www.dccae.gov.ie/documents/A0_concesion_map_Dec2016.pdf
)
Maria Edgeworth (1 January 1768 – 22 May
1849) was a prolific Anglo-Irish writer of adults' and
children's literature. St. John Greer Ervine (28 December 1883 – 24
January 1971) was an Irish author, writer, critic and
dramatist.
* * ENDS * *
For further information please visit 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. Its highly prospective exploration projects
include the Wressle oil development in the UK and seven licences
offshore Ireland with the
potential to host gross mean un-risked prospective resources of
more than 4 billion barrels oil equivalent and 1.5 TCF gas across
all seven licences. In H1 2017 Europa produced 110 boepd from its
portfolio of onshore UK 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.