US driller plans to boost Irish acreage
The company co-owns three licences off the Kerry coast, in the south Porcupine Basin, where it acts as junior partner with US firm Kosmos Energy.
Kosmos is set to make a decision before the end of June on whether drilling activity will begin, on the asset base, in the next year. The US company also has interests across Africa and it remains to be seen what takes precedence in its 2016 drilling plans. The Irish assets, however, have identified 1.5 billion barrels of gross mean ‘un-risked’ prospective oil resources.
As part of its half-year results presentation, Europa yesterday said technical work has provided strong encouragement to participate in the new Irish offshore licensing round. It views its Irish operations as key to its growth.
“Our recent technical work indicates there is substantial exploration upside in the Porcupine Basin and we will be bidding for new licences in the 2015 Irish Atlantic Margin licensing round,” said CEO Hugh Mackay. Yesterday, Europa reported revenues of £1.28m (€1.77m) for the six months to the end of January, down from just over £2m at the same stage last year.
It also recorded a pre-tax loss of £1.42m for its first half, a negative about-turn from a modest interim profit of £476,000 last year.
Mr Mackay said it was confident the momentum Europa has on its asset portfolio “will be maintained in the second half of 2015 and beyond”.
