Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc /
Index: AIM / Epic: EOG / Sector: Oil & Gas
26 September 2017
Europa Oil &
Gas (Holdings) plc (‘Europa’ or ‘the Company’)
Extension of
Agreement to Sell 10% Interest in Wressle Oil Discovery
Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc, the UK and Ireland focussed exploration, development and
production company, is pleased to announce a second extension to
the Sale and Purchase Agreement (‘SPA’) signed between its wholly
owned subsidiary and Upland Resources (UK Onshore) Limited
(‘Upland’) in relation to a 10% interest in Europa’s PEDL180 and
PEDL182 (‘the Licences’) in North Lincolnshire. Europa
currently has a 30% working interest in the Licences, which include
the Wressle discovery and the Broughton North prospect, alongside
Egdon Resources (operator, 25%), Celtique Energie Petroleum Ltd
(33.33%), and Union Jack Oil (11.67%), (together “the Joint Venture
partners”). Completion of the SPA would result in Europa
retaining a 20% interest in the Licences.
As set out in the Company’s announcement of 24 November 2016, completion of the SPA is
conditional upon, inter alia, approval from the Oil & Gas
Authority and approval of the Wressle Field Development Plan.
The outstanding condition to completion of the SPA is the award of
relevant planning permissions to the Wressle development.
On 7 February 2017, the Company
announced the decision by the Joint Venture partners to appeal
against the refusal by North Lincolnshire Council to grant planning
consent for the development of Wressle and to file a new planning
application covering the specific concerns outlined by the
Council’s planning committee. On 3
July 2017, this new application was refused planning
permission by the Council. On 1 August
2017, Egdon Resources announced its intention to bring
forward appeals against the Council’s decisions. The appeals
hearing is expected to commence on 7
November 2017 with a decision expected within six weeks of
the end of the six day appeals hearing. The format of the
appeals differs from the planning decisions made by North
Lincolnshire Council: the appeals take only prior written
dispositions, which are subject to proper scrutiny and cross
examination and they are held within a well-constrained framework
and timeframe.
To allow sufficient time for the appeal process to be completed,
Upland has agreed to an extension of the 'long stop' date by which
the conditions of the SPA are to be satisfied from 30 September 2017 to 28
February 2018.
On satisfaction of the conditions, the sale to Upland of a 10%
interest in the Licences is to be effected by way of an assignment
from Europa. As part of the consideration due to Europa on
completion of the SPA, the Company is to be issued with 23,076,923
new ordinary shares in Upland Resources Limited (‘the Initial
Consideration Shares’). The remainder of the initial
consideration is to be settled in cash. Following the
extension of the ‘long stop’ date to 28
February 2018, Europa has agreed not to dispose of any of
the Initial Consideration Shares before 1
February 2019. This is subject to certain limited
exceptions.
* * 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 |
Simon Hicks |
finnCap Ltd |
+ 44 (0) 20 7220 0500 |
Emily Morris |
finnCap Ltd |
+ 44 (0) 20 7220 0500 |
Frank Buhagiar |
St Brides Partners Ltd |
+ 44 (0) 20 7236 1177 |
Susie Geliher |
St Brides Partners Ltd |
+ 44 (0) 20 7236 1177 |
Notes
Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc has a diversified portfolio
of multi-stage hydrocarbon assets that includes production,
exploration and development interests, in countries that are
politically stable, have transparent licensing processes, and offer
attractive terms. In 2016 Europa produced 123 boepd.
Its highly prospective exploration projects include the Wressle
development (targeting production start-up in 2018 at up to 500
bopd gross) in the UK and seven licences offshore Ireland with the potential to host gross mean
un-risked prospective and indicative resources of more than 4
billion barrels oil equivalent and 1.5 tcf gas across all seven
licences.