16th Feb 2006 11:14
Embargoed: 11.15hrs 16 February 2006 Northern Petroleum Plc ("Northern" or "the Company") Award of Italian Licences Northern is pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary, NorthernPetroleum (UK) Limited ("NPUK"), has been advised of the preliminary award ofsix offshore Italian licences, covering 4,415 sq km, of which it is theoperator. The licences confirmed are: d22G.R-.NP, d23G.R-.NP, d24G.R-.NP in theSicily Channel, d57F.R-.NP and d58F.R-.NP in the Southern Adriatic andd59F.R-.NP Offshore Calabria. Northern will now go ahead to prepare thenecessary environmental impact studies on these licences.The two offshore Adriatic licences contain three oil discoveries, Rovestidrilled by Agip in 1978, Medusa drilled by Enterprise Oil in 1996 and Giovedrilled by Enterprise Oil in 1998. The Giove-1 well encountered a 64 meter gascolumn before the well had a gas kick and was abandoned for safety issues. TheGiove-2 appraisal well encountered the base of the gas column giving a grosscolumn of 83 meters and then an oil column of 94 meters within Eocenecarbonates at a depth of 1038 metres. This well was abandoned before testingbecause of a seabed gas leak that caused instability of the drilling unitrequiring immediate abandonment.The offshore Calabria licence contains three gas discoveries drilled by Agip/Eni; Fiorenza, Fedra and Florida within Pliocene and Miocene sandstones atdepths from 700 to 1700 meters. Production rates of 15 mmcfd were obtained inthe Fiorenza well drilled in 1982 and the Florida well drilled in 1999encountered a 119 meter gas column. Additional prospectivity can be recognisedon the existing 3D seismic data with significant amplitude anomalies and flatspots indicating the potential presence of gas in other structures.The three licences awarded to the west of Sicily complete our licensing of theApennine-Maghreb thrust belt in Italian waters. This thrust belt is productivein the Southern Apennines with the large fields at Monte Alpi and Tempa Rossa,in Sicily with the Gagliano gas field and more recently in Algeria.Derek Musgrove, Managing Director of Northern said: "We are extremely excitedby the potential of these additional six Italian licences and intend to fasttrack our analysis of the oil and gas discoveries for appraisal drilling. Inthe offshore of Calabria we believe we have licensed a major gas area in deeperwater beyond the large Luna field. Our assessment of the thrust area suggestsit to be of very great potential, indeed one of the last areas of Europe inwhich to find a significant oil province."For further information on Northern's Italian assets please see our web site, www.northpet.com, navigate to the `Investors' section and click on`Presentations'.Contacts:Northern Petroleum PlcDerek Musgrove, Managing DirectorGraham Heard, Exploration ManagerTel: 020 7743 6080InvestecMichael AnsellAndrew ChenTel: 020 7597 5000Hansard CommunicationsChris RobertsBen SimonsTel. 020 7245 1100ENDNORTHERN PETROLEUM PLCRelated Shares:
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