Europa Oil & Gas intends to enlist a farm-in partner to drill a wildcat at the Kiely East prospect off Ireland shortly after securing a licence extension from the authorities.

The London-listed independent has now gained a one-year extension to July 2020 for the first phase of its wholly owned and operated Frontier Exploration Licence 2/13 where nine prospects and leads have been identified from 3D seismic data.

The top-ranked prospect is Kiely East, with a mean gross prospective resource estimate of 280 million barrels of oil equivalent, and the company is looking to drill it “at the earliest opportunity”, according to chief executive Hugh Mackay.

He said the extension enables Europa to press ahead with drilling plans, with a site survey application for the well location now in progress, though these are subject to securing farm-in partners and regulatory approvals.

The licence, located on the west flank of the South Porcupine basin in water depths ranging from 800 to 1200 metres, also hosts the Doyle Cretaceous channel complex within its pre-rift and Cretaceous hydrocarbon plays, as well as the Kiely East and West prospects.

It is estimated to hold total gross mean prospective resources of more than 1.3 billion boe, mainly oil.

Exploration

Europa targets wildcat off Ireland