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Europa Oil & Gas and its big plans onshore UK and offshore Ireland

Published: 15:09 05 Oct 2016 BST

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Over the year in total production from Europa’s UK onshore assets amounted to 123 barrels oil equivalent per day

Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) Plc (LON:EOG) is making headway in its aim to become a robust oil firm and the market has noticed progress too.

Shares have risen over 35% since the beginning of July to where they now stand at 4.75p each.

The final results to the end of that month showed a strong performance in the face of what are well documented challenges in the oil sector.

Chief executive Hugh Mackay told the results statement:  "We have reduced costs by one third, our UK production is set to double, we are preparing to drill a high impact well onshore UK at Holmwood, we have delivered three deals, landed seven new licences in the UK and Ireland and perhaps most importantly built a leading position in Atlantic Ireland."

It is worth noting that the Holmwood exploration well is a follow on to the breakthrough Horse Hill well near Gatwick airport.

Over the year in total production from Europa’s UK onshore assets amounted to 123 barrels oil equivalent per day.

WATCH - Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) Plc on cusp of break even at US$30 a barrel

UK output set to double with Wressle

Production at the Wressle discovery in North Lincolnshire is set to begin in early 2017 and the project, in which it sold  a 3.34% interest to Union Jack Oil, but retains 30%, is central to the group's production aims.

It is set to provide 150 barrels  a day net to Europa, which on  top of the 123 barrels a day from the other three fields, will double revenues and  mean the company will break even at US$30 a barrel.

Mackay recently told Proactive: "That's quite an important metric for us and distinguishes us from many companies on AIM who can’t do that."

One of the leading explorers in offshore-Ireland

The Atlantic margin, off the coast of the Emerald Isle, is one of the buzz topics in oil exploration at the moment. After a period of intense interest in the region a few years ago, it went off the radar, as firms thought it was too expensive to drill there.

Now, in 2015 it has played host to the most successful licensing round ever in Ireland, while major oil firms and supermajors are also bak in the area and have already begun work programmes

As Mackay noted this is "a remarkable outcome" given sub $50 oil prices currently, and he expect that this activity will likely result in exploration drilling.

Europa now has five offshore licences in Ireland  - literally named Doyle, Wilde, Beckett and Shaw, and  over the next two to three years hopes to deliver half a dozen drillable targets -  any one of which, says Mackay, could be a 'company maker'.

Excitement building at Holmwood

The group has obtained planning for an exploration well at Holmwood - a conventional hydrocarbon prospect with unranked prospective resources of 5.6mln boe (barrels of oil equivalent) in the Weald basin in southern England. If it came in at that it would be the fifth largest onshore field in the UK.

The firm has a 32.5% interest and expects to begin drilling in 2017.

Significantly, there is positive the read -across from the Horse Hill well near Gatwick airport - just 12 km away, where 13,00 barrels a day flowed , which, as MacKay says, is very good for an onshore well.

"There is absolutely no doubt that the results at Horse Hill are relevant for Holmwood," he recently told Proactive.

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