Europa Oil & Gas Regulatory News (EOG)

18 Aug 2010 07:00

Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc

Unconventional Resources Licence Awards

The Directors of Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc are pleased to announce the award to Europa by the Coal Authority of two licences for underground coal gasification off the east coast of England. These areas are adjacent to Europa's existing East Midlands licences.

Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) is a developing technology that recovers up to 80% of the calorific value of in situ coal by a process of controlled combustion. UCG, when combined with CO2 storage in the depleted coal seams, creates a source of energy which rivals nuclear for low emissions and has lower unit costs than conventional gas-fired power stations*.

With only 30% utilisation rate for the coals, the estimated potential UCG energy resource in these two licence areas is 36EJ or 6 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Paul Barrett, Managing Director, said `Whilst UCG is in its infancy in Europe, it has great potential to extract energy cleanly from vast resources of virgin coal still present in parts of the UK. Europa's existing business position in the East Midlands is a perfect platform to pilot these technologies, whilst the proximity of the licences to refinery, gas and energy infrastructure is a key to future commercialisation of this resource.'

For further information, contact:

Europa Oil & Gas Paul Barrett +44 1235 467 360

Astaire Securities Shane Gallwey/Toby Gibbs +44 20 7492 4750 Astaire Securities Charles Vaughan +44 20 7492 4763

The contents of this news release have been reviewed and approved by Paul Barrett, MSc., a geologist with over 30 years oil, gas and coal experience.

Notes to Editors

Licence Details

Conditional UCG Licences with an initial 3 year term.

Humber South 100km2 situated along the coast next to the Mablethorpe Gas Terminal Offshore Holderness 100km2 situated along the coast next to the Aldborough Gas Storage Facility and north of the Easington Gas Terminal

Both licences held 90% Europa Oil & Gas (Resources) Limited and 10% Oxford Coal Consulting Limited

Reference

* Kempka T. et al, 2009, Economic viability of in-situ coal gasification with downstream CO2 storage.

Useful Links

www.ugpc.com Underground Coal Gasification Partnership (UK) www.lincenergy.com.au Linc Energy - Leader in Australian UCG

Glossary

Conversion rate: 2,700m3 syn-gas per tonne of coal.Energy content: 12.5MJ/m3 syngas.Energy equivalence: 1 bbl oil = 6 GJEJ: Exajoules (10^15 joules)