Europa, Cairn to relinquish offshore Ireland license

Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) Plc and a Cairn Energy Plc unit will relinquish interest in Licensing Option (LO) 16/19 in South Porcupine basin, offshore Ireland, after a work program and full technical assessment concluded limited prospectivity on the license.

Capricorn Oil Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Cairn Energy, become operator of LP 16/19 after acquiring a 70% interest from Europa Oil & Gas in March 2017. Europa retained a 30% interest (OGJ Online, Apr. 27, 2017). As part of the farm-out, Cairn funded a seismic acquisition program which covered the 976-sq-km licensing option on the western flank of South Porcupine basin and was completed in 2018.

Following the relinquishment, Europa’s license position offshore Ireland comprises five 100%-owned licenses. Multiple targets have been identified on seismic data across the licenses, the company said.