Europa Oil & Gas has announced its interim results for the six month period ended 31 January 2019.

Operational highlights

• Ongoing negotiations regarding farm-in agreements to three Irish licences (LO 16/20, FEL 1/17 and FEL 3/13) with a major international oil company:
  • expect Europa to be fully carried on a well on each licence
  • expect Europa to retain a material interest in each licence
  • the Board is confident of concluding the farm-ins in the coming months however, there can be no guarantee that the current negotiations will lead to completed agreements
  • final investment decision awaited from the major’s head office
• Site surveys for wells at Inishkea, Kiely East and Edgeworth – targeting summer 2019, are under application subject to regulatory approval
• Successfully executing strategy to manage the decline in production at onshore UK fields
  • workover of the WF6 well at West Firsby utilising a drain hole jetting technique - WF6 is currently producing 6 boepd net to Europa having previously produced zero oil
  • 90 boepd produced in H1 2019 (H1 2018 97 boepd)
• Final phase of discussions with the National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (“ONHYM”), in respect of securing a petroleum agreement in Morocco

Financial performance

• Revenue £0.9 million (H1 2018: £0.8 million)
• Pre-tax loss of £0.4 million, (H1 2018: pre-tax tax loss of £0.5 million)
• Net cash used in operating activities £0.3 million (H1 2018: cash from operating activities £16k)
• Cash balance at 31 January 2019: £4.4 million (31 July 2018: £1.8 million)
• Successfully raised £4.3 million (before expenses) from existing and new shareholders including BGF Investment Management Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Business Growth Fund (“BGF”)
  • approximately 33% of the shares in the Company now owned by institutions,
  • a further 9.5% are held by the Board

Post reporting period events

• Wressle planning appeal submitted to Planning Inspectorate on 5 February 2019 and draft bespoke programme issued by the Inspectorate on 13 February
• Gross un-risked prospective resources at the Inishkea gas prospect in LO 16/20 confirmed as 1.5 tcf with one in three chance of success (RNS 26 February 2019)
• Transferred operatorship of PEDL143 to UK Oil & Gas PLC as announced on 14 March 2019

Europa's CEO, Hugh Mackay, said:
"The last six months have been a highly active period for Europa, not just in terms of the progress we are making to advance our industry-leading licence position offshore Ireland, which to date has estimated gross prospective resources of 6.4 billion barrels of oil and 1.5 tcf of gas and where negotiations are ongoing for a farm-in for three licences with a major international oil and gas company. In addition, we completed a £4.3 million fund raising, which increased the institutional representation on our shareholder register to over one third. We also restored production at the WF6 well at West Firsby and moved closer towards landing a high impact new venture in Morocco. 

'The momentum behind the Company has continued post period end with the completion of a major piece of exploration work at our flagship Inishkea gas project. I look forward to providing further updates on our progress during the second half, a period which will see the resumption of drilling activity in the South Porcupine Basin at CNOOC International’s Iolar prospect.  Success here would be a value trigger event for Europa, as it would significantly de-risk our drill-ready prospects in the basin, specifically, the 280mmboe Kiely East and 225mmboe Edgeworth targets."

Link to Europa Oil & Gas UK country profile   l   Link to Europa Oil & Gas Ireland country profile