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(Alliance News) - Europa Oil & Gas Holdings PLC on Wednesday said it has relinquished a licensing option in the South Porcupine Basin, offshore Ireland.
Europa Oil said a technical assessment found the potential of LO 16/19 to be limited. Europa said the relinquishment has "negligible impact" on the value of its portfolio.
It added that it will incur accounting costs of GBP94,000, however,
Europa had a 30% stake in the licensing option after farming out 70% of its interest to Cairn Energy PLC.
Chief Executive Simon Oddie added: "Today's relinquishment of LO 16/19 provides a worked example of how our low cost/low risk exploration model works in practice: acquire acreage at an early stage; identify and work up the technical case of leads; attract partners to fund further de-risking of prospectivity; and, based on the results, elect to drill or drop.
"In LO 16/19's case, the decision has been taken by both partners to relinquish the acreage. As this demonstrates, our exploration model is centred on potentially exposing Europa to high reward wells while at the same time minimising cost and risk."
The company now has five licences in Ireland, including the 4/19, the 1/17, and the 3/13 concessions, where in January it reported a breakdown in farm-out discussions with an oil major.
Shares in the company were 6.1% lower at 1.55 pence each in London on Wednesday at midday.
By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com
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