Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc has declined the offer of a licence by the North Sea Transition Authority in the 33rd offshore licensing round.
OPPORTUNITIES
The regulator had awarded the licence as a marriage between the company and another party.
Europa declined the marriage and the full licence should NSTA decide to offer it to the company as the sole owner.
The company said it had analysed the subsurface data as part of its original application for the licence, as well as the monetisation options and resource development economics.
“Since this analysis, various aspects of the operating conditions and the fiscal environment have changed and remain uncertain, this has reduced the economic and strategic attractiveness of the licence.”
Chief executive Will Holland added that the recently acquired interest in EG-08 licence in Equatorial Guinea would be “very material” for Europa.
“Given the size of the company and our limited resources it is essential that we focus on where we see the best risk/reward proposition that can generate significant value for our shareholders.
“Any new asset needs to be considered carefully against other opportunities that are under evaluation to ensure that we are deploying our capital on assets that have the best potential of returning value to our shareholders.”