Europa Oil & Gas (LON:EOG) has been awarded Block 41/24 in the Southern North Sea in the latest licensing round.
It applied jointly with Scottish private company Arenite Petroleum for the block and both firms have a 50% stake.
The award is for a Promote licence that requires a drilling decision within two years. After that point, it will revert back to a traditional licence for up to 26 years.
Europa had previously held it solely as a traditional licence from an earlier North Sea round and this knowledge will help it going forward, said chief executive Hugh Mackay.
“We are delighted to announce this award.
“As a consequence of previous and ongoing work we have considerable technical expertise on Carboniferous prospectivity as well as substantive seismic and other technical data in this area.
“The Promote Licence terms enable us to leverage this capability whilst at the same time managing costs and financial exposure.“
Adjacent to the Yorkshire coast, the block contains 41/24a-1 and 2 stranded gas discoveries in Permian-aged Zechstein Carbonates.
The adjoining onshore extension of the Cleveland Basin also contains a number of gas fields and discoveries including Kirby Misperton, Ebberstone Moor and Cloughton.
“The oil and gas industry onshore UK has been developing new exploration ideas and we hope to apply some of these ideas to good effect in the offshore extension,” added Mackay.