National Maritime College of Ireland

Further Prospects Found Off West Coast of Ireland

Folks,

Further prospects found off west coast of Ireland. The more the merrier:

Europa finds prospects off west coast

By Geoff Percival –  Irish Examiner

Thursday, September 20, 2012

London-based exploration company Europa Oil & Gas has said that it has identified two large, previously unknown, prospects off the west coast of Ireland.

The AIM-listed oil and gas exploration, development, and production company made the announcement yesterday as part of a technical update of its two licensing options located in the South Porcupine Basin in the Irish Atlantic Margin off the west coast.

The two licences, which the British company was awarded as part of the Irish Atlantic Margin Licensing round in November, cover an area of nearly 2,000km.

“Having identified two large structures in the Irish Atlantic Margin, our initial technical work and prospect mapping exercise has exceeded our expectations,” said Europa chief executive, Hugh Mackay.

“Combined with the presence of a functioning hydrocarbon system, as indicated by the Burren oil discovery, the size of these structures is tremendously exciting and warrants further priority investigation.”

It is still too early to know exactly what exists at the prospects, and to what extent, but Europa is in talks with interested parties over farming-out an equity stake in the asset to lower its developmental costs. Europa has 100% ownership of the licences.

Mr Mackay also said he hopes to update on the profile of the assets at the Ireland-Atlantic 2012 Conference in Dublin in November.

Elsewhere yesterday, Providence Resources issued a technical update on its Rathlin Basin prospect off the Antrim coast, saying work has started on identifying where drilling will begin. Rathlin, 100% owned by Providence, forms part of the company’s multi-well offshore Ireland drilling round, which recently began at Barryroe.

Meanwhile, Irish exploration company Petroneft saw its price rise by nearly 5% yesterday, on the back of it announcing the successful drilling of the first of 10 wells at its Arbuzovskoye field in Tomsk, Russia.