US driller plans to boost Irish acreage

UK exploration firm, Europa Oil and Gas has confirmed it will seek to increase its Irish acreage by bidding for more prospects in this year’s Atlantic Margin licensing round.

The company co-owns three licences off the Kerry coast, in the south Porcupine Basin, where it acts as junior partner with US firm Kosmos Energy.

Kosmos is set to make a decision before the end of June on whether drilling activity will begin, on the asset base, in the next year. The US company also has interests across Africa and it remains to be seen what takes precedence in its 2016 drilling plans. The Irish assets, however, have identified 1.5 billion barrels of gross mean ‘un-risked’ prospective oil resources.