Private equity-backed junior Azeire has been awarded several new licencing options over multiple blocks and part-blocks in the North Celtic Sea and Fastnet Basins offshore Ireland.

Ireland-focused Azeire said on Thursday that it landed a combined area of 3163 square kilometres, where it plans to start “an aggressive exploration programme”.

Ireland’s Minister for Communications, Climate Actions and Environment awarded Azeire, backed by the Seacrest Group, Blocks 63/14, 64/1, 56/10, 56/14, 56/15, 56/19.

The company also landed part- blocks 56/26, 56/27, 63/5, 63/8, 63/9, 63/10, 63/13, 63/15, 64/1, 64/2, 64/6, 56/5, 56/20, 57/1, 57/6, it said.

The licencing options commenced on the 1 December 2016 and will expire on the 30 November 2019.

“We are really excited to have been awarded these new licence options in an area which we believe is the true conjugate margin equivalent of the Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous section in the Flemish Pass and Jean d’Arc basins off Newfoundland and Labrador,” Azeire managing director David Sturt said.

“When we first started to look at this area we recognised the potential but the historic seismic data suffered severely from data quality issues caused by near-surface geology.”

“We identified the need for a regional modern 2D broadband solution and pre funded a 3478 kilometres 2D seismic survey in 2013. This data quality was significantly improved and illuminated the true potential of these basins,” Sturt said.

“We are now looking forward to an aggressive exploration programme on these new licence areas.”

Paul Murray, partner at Seacrest added: “This is the further step in Seacrest's plan to build a significant independent exploration and production company offshore Ireland and follows the recent acquisition of Antrim Energy Ireland, with interests in the North Porcupine basin.”

“AzEire now has significant acreage positions in the most attractive areas offshore Ireland. Today’s award of these licence options is a result of the quality of AzEire’s technical work and our ongoing commitment to Ireland,” Murray said.

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Azeire lands Irish offshore licences