“Part blocks” 98/13 and 98/14 border the company’s existing onshore licences on the island itself.

The company’s subsidiary NP Solent will hold 62.5 per cent of the licences and is the operator.

The other shareholders are Magellan Petroleum (22.5 per cent),Encore Oil Plc (7.5 per cent), Montrose Industries (5 per cent) and Oil & Gas Investments (2.5 per cent).

Managing director Derek Musgrove said: "We are very pleased to have been offered part blocks 98/13 and 98/14. 

“This allows the joint venture to evaluate the oil and gas potential of the mapped well defined prospect that extends from the Isle of Wight into the English Channel.” 

One of Northern’s offshore blocks butts up against two of the five licences acquired by Wessex Exploration and its partner Norwest Energy of Australia.

They are building up acreage around Wytch Farm, Britain’s largest onshore oil discovery.

Europe-focused oil and gas explorer Northern Petroleum (LON:NOP) announced this morning that it has sold its interest in the Vinkega gas field in the Netherlands for €3.2 million

Discovered after the Vinkega-1 well was drilled in late 2009, the Vinkega field has been mapped as underlying both part of the Gorredijk licence (owned by Vermilion Oil & Gas Netherlands) and part of the Drenthe III licence, in which Northern Petroleum Nederland holds a stake.

The firm said today that all of the Drenthe III licence holders have agreed to the sale of their respective Drenthe III interests in the Vinkega field to Vermilion, with Northern Petroleum Nederland’s share of the consideration being €3.2 million. 70 percent of the purchase price has already been paid on signing of the sale and purchase agreement, with the remaining 30 per cent being payable following completion.

“The sale will enable a smooth transition into production under Vermilion's team and make a useful financial contribution to our hopefully successful exploration activities on the Drenthe III licence in the near future,” said Derek Musgrove, Northern Petroleum’s managing director. “Northern considered that Vinkega was not a prospect of sufficient size and structural appeal to have attracted a wildcat well on the Drenthe III licence alone. On behalf of the Drenthe III licence interest holders I thank Vermilion and their partners for their work and efforts.”

Northern Petroleum (LON:NOP) told investors that it has now completed a 2D seismic survey over a 600 square kilometre area in the Southern Adriatic.

The survey spanned two licences, F.R39.NP & F.R40.NP, which contain the Rovesti and Giove oil discoveries as well as ten mapped prospects.

In March this year Northern Petroleum agreed a new tie-up for the licences with Azimuth Ltd. The new partner will take a 15 percent stake in the permits by funding a share of the future work programmes.

This seismic survey is part of a work programme that is being funded by Northern Petroleum. 

The current work programme is designed to gather a more complete and better quality data set for the area, Northern said. This will then allow an upgrade definition of the encouraging prospects identified from older seismic surveys.

A further 3D seismic is planned in 2012. At the moment the company is awaiting approvals from all the relevant authorities before work begins.

One of the objectives of the Azimuth agreement is to define and delineate suitable appraisal and exploration drilling targets. 

Giove and Rovesti oil fields have been independently assessed to have 53.2 million barrels of probable oil reserves. 

While NOP estimates that they have more than 3 billion barrels of oil-in-place, and gas prospects with over 2 trillion cubic feet of gas-in-place - over 1 billion barrels oil equivalent.