Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) PLC (AIM:EOG) announced it has upped its estimated gas resources for the Inishkea West project, offshore Ireland.
With the company now seeing up to 1.55 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Inishkea West prospect, the estimates increased by some 92%.
It follows the reprocessing of seismic data using what the company described as "cutting edge techniques".
The explorer, in today’s statement, highlighted that it now has a marked improvement in the imaging of both the Inishkea West and Inishkea prospects.
"This is a very exciting development for the FEL 4/19 licence as the seismic reprocessing has significantly enhanced the sub-surface imaging which has improved our understanding of the size of the prospects and the seal risk,” chief executive Will Holland said in a statement.
Europa believes it can enhance its view of the prospect through a further data reprocessing exercise, so in order to do so, it will apply to extend the first phase of its exploration licence to allow time for this work and to secure a farm-in partner.
The farm-out process has, in the meantime, been paused.
“These results have more than justified the additional time and expenditure on what is a key asset for not only Europa, but also Ireland in terms of potential indigenous energy security and as part of the country's energy transition,” Holland added.
“The seal uncertainty, which the reprocessing has addressed, was a matter that some of the potential farm-inees had highlighted during the farm-out process and potential partners wanted to see the results of the reprocessing before making an offer.
“However, we now believe that the sub-surface imaging can be further improved by reprocessing at 30Hz and we will therefore be applying for a phase one licence extension to allow us to complete this work before continuing the farm-out process."