Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc /
Index: AIM / Epic: EOG / Sector: Oil & Gas
1 August 2018
Europa Oil &
Gas (Holdings) plc (‘Europa’ or ‘the Company’)
Update on Wressle,
North Lincolnshire
Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc, the UK and Ireland focussed oil and gas exploration,
development and production company, notes today’s update from Egdon
Resources (‘Egdon’) which advises that its application to North
Lincolnshire Council (‘NLC’) to extend planning consent for the
Wressle oil field development on PEDL 180 in the East Midlands
(‘the Application’) was refused.
Europa notes that the board of Egdon intends to appeal this
decision without delay and will begin preparing documentation on
receipt of the Committee’s decision notice.
Europa has a 30% working interest in Wressle alongside Egdon
(operator, 30%), Union Jack Oil (27.5%), and Humber Oil & Gas
Limited (12.5%) (‘the Joint Venture partners’). Egdon`s full
RNS including Notes is reproduced at the end of this release.
Europa's CEO, Hugh Mackay,
said: “It is disappointing to note today’s decision by the NLC,
particularly when considering that this application had received
support from North Lincolnshire County Council’s planning
officers. The board of Egdon has been forthright in its
intention to appeal this decision and we will stand by for further
updates in due course.
“Bringing Wressle on-stream would augment our current net daily
production to approximately 250 bopd and generate a valuable
revenue stream for reinvestment across our multi-stage portfolio of
licences onshore UK and offshore Ireland. With this in mind,
we remain hopeful of a resolution to the outstanding issues to
ensure a satisfactory outcome for all parties.”
Egdon`s RNS published today is as
follows:
Egdon Resources plc (AIM:EDR) advises that its application to
extend planning consent for the Wressle site to 1 August 2019 was refused at today’s meeting of
the North Lincolnshire Council Planning Committee (“the
Committee”). The application had been recommended for approval by
North Lincolnshire County Council’s planning officers.
Mark Abbott, Managing Director of
Egdon Resources plc, said:
“The decision of the Committee is
clearly disappointing given that the application had been
recommended for approval by North Lincolnshire Council’s own
professional planning officers, that an appeal for a previous
refusal of such an application had been successful and that we have
recently submitted a new application for the development of the
Wressle oil field which we strongly believe comprehensively
addresses the reasons for the refusal of the original planning
applications and the subsequent appeals.
“We intend to appeal this decision
without delay and will begin preparing documentation on receipt of
the Committee’s decision notice.”
Notes to Editors:
Planning history:
On 11 January 2017, North
Lincolnshire Council refused planning consent for the original
application for the development of the Wressle Oil Field at Lodge
Farm, Wressle, North Lincolnshire.
On 7 February 2017, Egdon
announced that it would both appeal the decision of 11 January 2017 and in parallel submit a new
Planning Application for the Wressle development which would
include even more detailed information to address the specific
concerns outlined by North Lincolnshire Council in their
refusal.
On 11 April 2017, Egdon submitted
an appeal against North Lincolnshire Council’s decision to refuse
planning consent.
On 28 April 2017, Egdon submitted
a new application for the Wressle Development including additional
detailed information to address the specific concerns raised by
North Lincolnshire Council in its 11 January
2017 decision to refuse the original application for the
development of the Wressle Oil Field.
On 19 May 2017, Egdon announced
the issue by the Environment Agency of the variation to the Mining
Waste Permit for the planned Wressle field development and
associated operations.
On 3 July 2017, the new planning
application was also refused. The variation of the existing
planning for the site requesting a twelve month extension was also
refused at the same meeting.
During November 2017, a planning
inquiry was held to consider the two appeals for development
approval and the appeal of the variation of the existing planning
for the site. On 5 January
2018, we announced that the Inspector had rejected the
appeals by Egdon against the two planning refusals by North
Lincolnshire County Council’s Planning Committee. However,
the Planning Inspectorate did uphold Egdon’s appeal against the
decision to refuse the application to retain the existing planning
for the well site, which is was retained until the 28 April 2018.
A new application to extend the current planning consent was
submitted on 13 April 2018 and
refused 8 August 2018 and the company
announced its intention to appeal the decision
On 5 July we announced the submission to North Lincolnshire
Council of a new planning application for the development of the
Wressle oil field.
Egdon Resources plc (LSE: EDR) is an established UK-based
exploration and production company focused on onshore exploration
and production in the hydrocarbon-producing basins of the
UK.
Egdon holds interests in 44 licences in the UK and has an active
programme of exploration, appraisal and development within its
portfolio of oil and gas assets. Egdon is an approved
operator in the UK.
Egdon was formed in 1997 and listed on AIM in December 2004.
In accordance with the AIM Rules - Note for Mining and Oil and
Gas Companies, the information contained in this announcement has
been reviewed and signed off by the Managing Director of Egdon
Resources plc Mark Abbott, a
Geoscientist with over 26 years' experience.
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by
the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under
the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 ("MAR"). Upon the
publication of this announcement via Regulatory Information Service
("RIS"), this inside information is now considered to be in the
public domain.
* * 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 |
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 2017 Europa produced 113 boepd. Its highly
prospective exploration projects include the Wressle development in
the UK (targeting production start-up in 2018 at 500 bopd gross)
and six licences offshore Ireland
with the potential to host gross mean un-risked prospective
resources of 6.2 billion barrels oil equivalent and 2.5 tcf
undiscovered GIIP across all six licences.
Qualified Person Review
This release has been reviewed by Hugh
Mackay, Chief Executive of Europa, who is a petroleum
geologist with 30 years' experience in petroleum exploration and a
member of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain, American Association of
Petroleum Geologists and Fellow of the Geological Society. Mr
Mackay has consented to the inclusion of the technical information
in this release in the form and context in which it appears.