The 3D seismic testing of undeveloped Irish frontiers’ has been completed, the project shareholder announced today.
Testing of a 1,500 sq kilometre acquisition programme on Frontier Exploration Licences (FELs) 2/13 and 3/13 completed the first phase of a 15 year exploration plan for the South Porcupine Basin licences, in the Irish Atlantic Margin.
The licences were awarded in July this year to Kosmos Energy Ireland, who holds 85% interest in the prospects, and Europa Oil & Gas.
Subject to results of the testing, the companies expect a drilling decision in the second half of next year, with potential drilling in 2015/16.
“The 3-D seismic commitment of 740 sq kilometre on each licence has been fulfilled within just four and a half months of the start date of FEL … effectively a year ahead of schedule,” said Hugh Mackay, Europa Oil & Gas’ chief executive.
“This is fast track exploration as we, led by Kosmos, target similar Cretaceous plays in the South Porcupine basin to those that Kosmos successfully pioneered in the Atlantic Margin basins offshore West Africa.
“Combined with the drilling of the Wressle prospect onshore UK later this year, and the recent renewal of the Bearn des Gaves permit, onshore France, where we recently identified a 416billion cubic feet of shallow gas play, this is an exciting period for Europa and I look forward to providing further updates in due course.”
Previous 2D testing by Europa identified estimated resources in the two licences of 482million barrels of oil and 1.612billion barrels of oil equivalent respectively.