Europa Oil & Gas Holdings Plc (LON:EOG) has secured an extension for the PEDL 143 licence, in Southern England, which is host to the Holmwood exploration project.
Extending the licence to October 1 2018 allows a proposed drill programme to go ahead, the company highlighted.
Europa has a 32.5% stake in Holmwood and is the operator of the venture, which also includes partners Egdon Resources Plc (LON:EDR) with 18%, UK Oil & Gas Investments Plc (LON:UKOG) with 30% and Union Jack Oil PLC (LON:UJO) with 7.5%.
Hugh Mackay, Europa chief executive, said: “The licence extension was necessary to drill the 5.6mmbo Holmwood prospect in late 2016 / H1 2017.
“We are looking forward to drilling this conventional prospect which we rate as having a one in three chance of success, as we focus on further growing our UK onshore production, which is on track to more than double to in excess of 250 bopd in H2 2016 when the Wressle discovery comes on stream.”
PEDL 143 is located within the Weald Basin and is found in a region that has seen 30mln barrels of oil produced from 14 oil fields.
It is some 5 kilometres from the Brockham oil field, and is 12 kilometres to the west of the high profile Horse Hill discovery well which recently flowed total rates of 1,688 barrels of oil per day and was the subject of ‘billion barrel’ estimates of oil potential.
Presently, Holmwood has a prior estimate of 5.6mln barrels of potential resources.
The proposed well will initially target a Portland reservoir target, before it is deepened to test similar deeper targets to those encountered at Horse Hill.