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Kosmos Farm-in to Europa’s Irish Licences Approved

13th May 2013 07:00

EUROPA OIL & GAS (HOLDINGS) PLC - Kosmos Farm-in to Europa’s Irish Licences Approved

EUROPA OIL & GAS (HOLDINGS) PLC - Kosmos Farm-in to Europa’s Irish Licences Approved

PR Newswire

London, May 10

Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc / Index: AIM / Epic: EOG / Sector: Oil & Gas

13 May 2013

Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc (`Europa' or `the Company')

Kosmos farm-in to Europa's Irish licences approved by Irish Government

Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc, the AIM listed oil and gas exploration anddevelopment company with a combination of producing and exploration assets inEurope, is pleased to announce Irish Government consent has been received forthe transfer of interest and operatorship (`Transfer') for its two LicensingOptions LO 11/7 and LO 11/8 (`Licences'), which cover approximately 2,000 sq kmin the highly prospective South Porcupine Basin in the Irish Atlantic Margin,to a subsidiary of the independent oil and gas exploration and productioncompany Kosmos Energy Ltd (`Kosmos').

The Transfer was approved by the Minister of State at the Department ofCommunications, Energy and Natural Resources on 8 May 2013 and as a result,Kosmos now holds an 85% interest in, and has assumed operatorship of, bothLicences with Europa holding the remaining 15%. As announced on 18 April 2013,under the terms of the farm-in Kosmos will fully fund the costs of a 3-Dseismic programme on each Licence and pay 85% of costs incurred by Europa todate.

Contingent upon an election of the companies to enter into a subsequentexploration drilling phase on one or both of the Licensing Option areas, Kosmoswill also incur 100% of the costs of the first exploration well on eachLicensing Option. The first exploration wells on LO 11/7 and LO 11/8 haveinvestment caps of US$90 million and US$110 million respectively. Costs inexcess of the investment cap would be shared between Kosmos (85%) and Europa(15%).

Kosmos, in conjunction with Europa, will now submit an application to the IrishGovernment to convert each Licence into a 15 year Frontier Exploration Licence.

Europa's CEO Hugh Mackay said: "Subject to government approval for convertingthe Licensing Options into full exploration licences, the next steps willinvolve acquiring 3-D seismic over both blocks. We are pursuing the sameCretaceous stratigraphic play that Kosmos pioneered in the Atlantic Marginbasins offshore West Africa. Kosmos have outstanding technical and operationalexperience of exploring this play and are the ideal partner to lead ourexploration programme in the South Porcupine basin.

"The recent announcements by ExxonMobil on 23 April of the commencement ofdrilling on the nearby Dunquin prospect and by Cairn Energy on 7 May regardingtheir farm-in to three licences in the North Porcupine basin indicate that weare entering an important period in offshore Ireland oil and gas exploration,in which Europa will be playing a key role. I look forward to updatingshareholders on our progress in due course."

About LO 11/7 and LO 11/8, offshore Ireland

LO 11/7 and LO 11/8 each cover an area of approximately 1,000km2 in the highlyprospective South Porcupine basin, offshore Ireland. The Licences have beenmapped using existing 2-D seismic data and are undrilled. Europa's technicalwork to date has identified two, previously unknown, prospects in the LowerCretaceous stratigraphic play: Mullen in LO 11/7 and Kiernan in LO 11/8 whichthe Company estimates to have gross mean un-risked indicative resources of 482million barrels of oil and 1.612 billion barrels of oil equivalentrespectively. Information about the Mullen and Kiernan prospects were providedto the markets in previous RNS releases dated 6 November 2012 and 16 January2013 respectively.

**ENDS**

For further information please visit www.europaoil.com or contact:

Hugh Mackay Europa + 44 (0) 20 7224 3770 Phil Greenhalgh Europa + 44 (0) 20 7224 3770 Matt Goode finnCap Ltd +44 (0) 20 7220 0500 Henrik Persson finnCap Ltd +44 (0) 20 7220 0500 Frank Buhagiar St Brides Media and Finance Ltd +44 (0) 20 7236 1177 Lottie Brocklehurst St Brides Media and Finance Ltd +44 (0) 20 7236 1177 Notes

Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc has a diversified portfolio of multi-stagehydrocarbon assets that includes production, exploration and developmentinterests, in countries that are politically stable, have transparent licensingprocesses, and offer attractive terms. The Company currently producesapproximately 180 boepd in the UK, generating sufficient revenues to covercorporate overheads. Its highly prospective exploration projects include theWressle prospect in the UK where a well is due to be drilled later this year; a100% owned deep gas appraisal project with a CPR assigned contingent resourceof 277bcf in onshore France; and a joint venture with leading independentKosmos to explore two licences in offshore Ireland in which Europa hasidentified two prospects with estimated gross mean un-risked indicativeresources of 482 million barrels oil and 1.6 billion barrels oil respectively.


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