Europa Oil & Gas Regulatory News (EOG)

Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc / Index: AIM / Epic: EOG / Sector: Oil & Gas 15 July 2013 Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc (`Europa' or `the Company') Award of Frontier Exploration Licences and Commencement of 3D Seismic in South Porcupine Basin, Offshore Ireland Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc, the AIM listed oil and gas exploration anddevelopment company with a combination of producing and exploration assets inEurope, is pleased to announce the commencement of a 3D seismic acquisitionprogramme in the South Porcupine Basin, offshore Ireland, following the awardby the Irish Government of Frontier Exploration Licences (`FELs') 2/13 and 3/13to Kosmos Energy Ireland Ltd (`Kosmos') and Europa. Kosmos, as operator, undertook to accelerate the conversion of LicensingOptions (`LO') 11/07 and 11/08 into FELs in order to bring forward theacquisition of 3D seismic into the summer of 2013. Accordingly, Kosmos havesecured from Polarcus, a seismic contractor, the use of the `M/V PolarcusAmani' vessel with which to acquire the 3D seismic. In tandem with this, Kosmoshas also obtained the appropriate permits for this programme from the relevantdepartments of the Irish Government. FELs 2/13 and 3/13 are located over 75% of the area formerly held under LO 11/07 and 11/08 respectively, and combined cover approximately 1,500 sq km in thehighly prospective South Porcupine Basin in the Irish Atlantic Margin. The FELshave been granted by the Minister of State at the Department of Communications,Energy and Natural Resources and are effective from 5 July 2013 and werenotified to the operator on 11 July 2013. Each FEL lasts for a period of 15years and is broken down into a maximum of four phases. The first phase ofthree years includes a commitment to acquire 740 sq km of 3D seismic on eachlicence. The second phase lasts four years and has a commitment to drill anexploration well on each licence. As with the original LOs, the FELs will beoperated by Kosmos, who hold an 85% interest with Europa holding the remainder. Europa's CEO Hugh Mackay said: "Out of all the Licensing Options awarded in the2011 Atlantic Margin Licensing Round, the three operated by Kosmos, two ofwhich Europa has a 15% interest in, are the first to be converted into FELs.The early award of the full Licences, along with the immediate commencement ofthe 3D seismic acquisition programme, clearly demonstrate Kosmos' intent toactively pursue in the South Porcupine basin similar Cretaceous plays to thosethat it pioneered in the Atlantic Margin basins offshore West Africa. "The recent entry of Cairn Energy and Woodside Petroleum into the SouthPorcupine basin, together with the on-going drilling by ExxonMobil at thenearby Dunquin prospect, not only highlight the prospectivity of the basin butalso the scale of the interest shown by leading names in the oil and gasindustry. As a result of all this activity and with much more to come, theexploration vision of the early movers who participated in the 2011 licensinground has been endorsed. This is a hugely significant first step on the pathtowards realising the hydrocarbon potential of the Cretaceous stratigraphicplay and we have done it a year early. I look forward to providing furtherupdates on our progress in due course." Further Information on FEL 2/13 and FEL 3/13, offshore Ireland FEL 2/13 (formerly LO 11/7) and FEL 3/13 (formerly LO 11/8) each cover an areaof approximately 750 sq km in the highly prospective South Porcupine Basin,offshore Ireland. The Licences have been mapped using existing 2D seismic dataand are undrilled. Europa's technical work to date has identified two,previously unknown, prospects in the Lower Cretaceous stratigraphic play:Mullen in FEL 2/13 and Kiernan in FEL 3/13, which the Company estimates to havegross mean un-risked indicative resources of 482 million barrels of oil and1.612 billion barrels of oil equivalent respectively. Information about theMullen and Kiernan prospects were provided to the markets in previous RNSreleases dated 6 November 2012 and 16 January 2013 respectively. As announced on 18 April 2013, under the terms of the farm-in Kosmos will fullyfund the costs of a 3D seismic programme in the first phase of each FrontierExploration License and pay 85% of costs incurred by Europa to date. Contingentupon an election of the companies to enter into the second phase of the FELwhich carries a drilling commitment, Kosmos will incur 100% of the costs of thefirst exploration well on each FEL. The first exploration wells on FEL 2/13 andFEL 3/13 have investment caps of US$90 million and US$110 million respectively.Costs in excess of the investment cap would be shared between Kosmos (85%) andEuropa (15%). **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 Henrik Persson finnCap Ltd +44 (0) 20 7220 0500 Frank Buhagiar St Brides Media and Finance Ltd +44 (0) 20 7236 1177 Lottie Brocklehurst St Brides Media and Finance Ltd +44 (0) 20 7236 1177 Notes Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc has a diversified portfolio of multi-stagehydrocarbon assets that includes production, exploration and developmentinterests, in countries that are politically stable, have transparent licensingprocesses, and offer attractive terms. The Company currently producesapproximately 180 boepd in the UK, generating sufficient revenues to covercorporate overheads. Its highly prospective exploration projects include theWressle prospect in the UK where a well is due to be drilled later in 2013; a100% owned deep gas appraisal project with a CPR assigned contingent resourceof 277bcf in onshore France; and a joint venture with leading independentKosmos to explore two licences in offshore Ireland in which Europa hasidentified two prospects with estimated gross mean un-risked indicativeresources of 482 million barrels oil and 1.6 billion barrels oil respectively.