Europa works up more oil prospects offshore Ireland

May 8, 2017
Europa Oil & Gas says two newly identified pre-rift prospects on its acreage offshore western Ireland could hold reserves of 553 MMboe.

Offshore staff

DUBLIN, Ireland ā€“ Europa Oil & Gas says two newly identified pre-rift prospects on its acreage offshore western Ireland could hold reserves of 553 MMboe.

This follows the findings of an independent Competent Personā€™s Report (CPR) prepared by ERC Equipoise over the Ervine and Edgeworth structures in licensing option (LO) 16/2, in the South Porcupine basin.

The CPR took into account in-house work on proprietary 3D seismic data which highlighted various large pre-rift tilted fault blocks, potentially analogous to the Brent Province of the North Sea.

Fault and reservoir imaging in the syn-rift and pre-rift of LO 16/2 on the current data set is complex, however. Europa therefore plans to reprocess the seismic to deliver a pre-stack depth migration product, with a view to de-risking Ervine/Edgeworth and another prospect on LO 16/2 and potentially upgrade them to drillable status.

This work should also improve the definition of the Lower Cretaceous Wilde, Beckett and Shaw prospects in the companyā€™s nearby FEL 3/13 license.

Water depths are around 1,550 m (5,085 ft) and reservoir depths are 2,400-2,800 m (7,874-9,186 ft) below mudline.Ā Europa anticipates sandstone reservoirs of mid-Jurassic in age, with migration pathways identified from mature late Jurassic/early Cretaceous marine source rocks deeper in the basin.

The hydrocarbon system is thought to be an oil play, although there is a possibility of gas charge.

05/08/2017