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LONDON (Alliance News) - Parkmead Group PLC Friday said it has been awarded three UK offshore oil and gas licences under the 28th Offshore Licensing Round, which was announced on Monday.
Parkmead has been awarded two licences that it will operate in the West of Shetland area and the third licence is in the Southern North Sea and will be operated by its partner Atlantic Petroleum.
"We are delighted with these significant new licence awards, which further increase the scale of Parkmead's oil and gas operations in the UK. Both the West of Shetland region and the Southern Gas Basin are areas we understand well, and both have the potential to add major value to Parkmead," said Chairman Tom Cross.
"In addition to this growth through licensing, the Parkmead team is looking hard at further acquisition opportunities which take advantage of the low oil price environment," he added.
The blocks awarded to Parkmead to the West of the Shetland Islands are block 205/13, just east of Parkmead's existing block 205/12, and block 205/19b, which is north of Parkmead's existing West of Shetland blocks containing the large Cretaceous Eddystone prospect.
Parkmead has secured block 48/8b, which is 20 kilometres south east of the Babbage gas field in the Southern North Sea.
Parkmead is the latest company to make a statement about its awards from the licensing round, which is usually held once every year or two to award licences to companies interested in developing them via exploration or production.
Hurricane Energy PLC has been awarded blocks 204/30b and 205/26b offshore the Shetland Islands, which link up to two of its nearby existing licenses whilst Europa Oil and Gas (Holdings) PLC were awarded block 41/24 in the southern North Sea.
There are three FTSE 100-listed companies and one AIM-listed company that have also been awarded licences, but are yet to make statements concerning the blocks awarded or their plans for them.
BP PLC were awarded five licences under the licensing round, whilst fellow giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC were awarded ten. Centrica was also awarded seven licences and is also working as a partner on other licences issued to other companies.
AIM-listed Ithaca Energy PLC was awarded block 15/19e through its major partner, Idemitsu, which purchased a downstream refinery business in Japan from Shell on Thursday.
One other company that has been awarded six licences is Third Energy, which is a company also interested in onshore licences and the potential for fracking in the UK. Third Energy is currently racing Cuadrilla Resources to be the first company to frack a well in the UK since 2011 through its application in Yorkshire.
The UK government is set to announce the results of the first tranche of the 14th licensing round for onshore oil and gas licences in the country in August, raising the fears of anti-fracking campaigners that the new Conservative majority government will open the door for companies to exploit the country's shale reserves.
The 14th landward licensing round opened in July 2014 and the results will be in two tranches, the first of which will be announced in August and the second tranche "later in the year".
Parkmead shares were up 2.1% to 88.80 pence per share on Friday morning.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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