Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc said that failure to find a farm-in partner has forced it to relinquish the Inezgane oil licence, offshore Morocco.
BANK GUARANTEE
The initial extension period of the licence announced in October 2020 has ended and the company today announced it had decided against progressing to the first extension period.
“Europa is in the final stages of completing all its obligations for Inezgane and expects to complete the final relinquishment report shortly,” said the company in a statement.
“Once this final obligation has been satisfied the bank guarantee of US$315,000 will be released and repaid to Europa, following which the company will have no further interests associated with Inezgane.”
Following the relinquishment, Europa will be left with assets onshore UK and offshore Ireland.
POTENTIAL OPPORTUNITIES
Chief executive Simon Oddie added that it had been a difficult decision not to progress to the first extension period as Inezgane offered “significant exploration potential”.
“However, progressing to the next stage would have required Europa to commit to drilling an exploration well, which we could not justify without obtaining another partner.
“We have been working tirelessly with advisors to secure a farm-in partner but the market appetite for offshore deep water oil exploration is currently very low and we have ultimately been unsuccessful.”
Mr Oddie said that Europa’s healthy balance sheet enabled it to build a balanced portfolio by exploring potential opportunities.