Europa Appoints Director

- Europa Appoints Director

Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Europa O&G Holdings plc

Europa announced the appointment of Hugh Mackay as a director of the Company.

As announced on August 11, 2011, Mr. Mackay will take up his position as Chief Executive Officer with effect from October 10, 2011. In order that he can participate in key decisions of the Company fully until that date, the Board has decided to appoint Mr. Mackay as a non-executive director in the meantime.

Europa announced the appointment of Hugh Mackay as a director of the Company.

As announced on August 11, 2011, Mr. Mackay will take up his position as Chief Executive Officer with effect from October 10, 2011. In order that he can participate in key decisions of the Company fully until that date, the Board has decided to appoint Mr. Mackay as a non-executive director in the meantime.

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Europa O&G Welcomes New CEO

- Europa O&G Welcomes New CEO

Thursday, August 11, 2011
Europa O&G Holdings plc

Europa O&G announced the appointment of Hugh Mackay as a director and Chief Executive Officer with effect from October 10, 2011.

Mr. Mackay was more recently founding Chairman of Avannaa Resources, a mineral exploration company focused on grass roots exploration in Greenland. Mr. Mackay has a wealth of experience in the oil and gas sector, including eight years at BP in a variety of roles in the UK, the Oman and Egypt, ten at Enterprise Oil in leadership roles, culminating as head of the SE Asia division. He played a pivotal role in the development of the Peak Group and its eventual sale to AGR Petroleum Services where he was Group Business Development Manager. Mr. Mackay has a BSc in Geology from the University of Edinburgh and a Sloan MSc in Management from the London Business School.

On appointment, Mr. Mackay will be granted options, expiring after ten years from the date of grant, over 5,000,000 ordinary shares with an exercise price of 13p. The share options will vest in five equal tranches when the share price of the Company has been at or above 25 pence, 35 pence, 45 pence, 50 pence and 60 pence respectively for a period of 30 consecutive trading days. Prior to appointment, Mr. Mackay has also purchased 455,615 ordinary shares of the Company, representing 0.35% of the Company's issued share capital.

Disclosures required pursuant to Schedule 2(g) of the AIM Rules for Companies in respect of Hugh Mackay are set out below.

Bill Adamson, Chairman of the Company commented, "We are delighted that Hugh has accepted our offer to join us. His track record shows that he has the right skills and experience in senior management positions, oil and gas project development, and entrepreneurial flair that Europa needs as it enters an exciting period in its development."

As previously notified on April 26, 2011, Paul Barrett will be standing down as Managing Director to pursue other interests.

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Europa Charges Ahead in Romania

- Europa Charges Ahead in Romania

Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Europa O&G Holdings plc

Europa provided an update on planned operations in Romania for the coming 6 months.

Europa has received both drilling approval and an extension to the license from the Romanian authorities in order to undertake the deepening of the Barchiz-1 exploration well, situated in the EPI-3 Brates Concession (Europa 100%). The deepening of the well is planned to test the exploration target thought to lie beneath the current 1,450m depth of the well.

Aurelian Oil & Gas, the Operator of the Brodina Concession (Europa 28.75%) in northern Romania, has advised partners that the Voitinel gas discovery appraisal well is due to spud on or around October 1, 2011. Subject to the results of this well, a further well is anticipated to be drilled to test the upside to the play in early 2012.

The 2011 seismic program in Romania is underway, with the EIII-3 Cuejdiu area (Europa 17.5%) acquisition over 70% complete. The EIII-1 Brodina program will follow on from this survey. Both of these seismic programs are concentrating on the underexplored thrustbelt oil play.

Managing Director Paul Barrett said, "these Romanian projects are coming together to create a significant amount of activity for the remainder of 2011 and we hope to exit the year with greater reserves and contingent resources."

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Europa O&G Looks Ahead at 2011 Exploration

- Europa O&G Looks Ahead at 2011 Exploration

Friday, June 10, 2011
Europa O&G Holdings plc

Europa provided an Operational Update outlining activity planned for the remainder of 2011 and into 2012.

Production

Since the operational and weather related issues reported in early March, group production has increased some 100% to a current average of 260 bopd. Gross revenues are currently running at $750,000 per month.

West Firsby-9 is currently on jet pump production from Zone 1 and is producing an estimated 50 bopd. Previously, Zone 2 produced at an estimated average of 50 bopd. West Firsby-7 Zone 1 has been producing approximately 90 bopd for the last 2 weeks with an estimated water cut of 75%, a strong improvement on previous performance before re-perforation.

There is significant potential for additional production from Crosby Warren by repeating the highly successful 1987 stimulation of Crosby Warren-1. This is planned for August and is anticipated to provide incremental production of between 50 and 150 bopd.

Appraisal

The Romanian appraisal well Voitinel-2, anticipated to be spudded in September, is to be a relatively conservative appraisal stepout to prove up to 35 bcf of gas-in-place which would allow for the initiation of a pilot production project for the northern part of Voitinel.

A second appraisal-exploration well, likely to be on the Solca Prospect, situated between the Voitinel and Paltinu gas discoveries and designed to test the upside in the Voitinel trend play, is expected to be drilled in early 2012.

On Europa's flagship appraisal project, Berenx, work has been underway for several weeks on the engineering design for a Berenx-3 appraisal well in late 2012/early 2013. In the meantime, the highly encouraging results from the recent CGGV processing of the Lacq Ouest 3D volume has given sufficient encouragement to acquire additional 3D data over the western part of the Berenx structure. It is anticipated this survey will be acquired in 4Q 2011 with a view to maturing contingent resource numbers and choosing a firm well location by 2Q 2012.

Exploration

With regard to UK exploration, Europa, Egdon Resources and Celtique Energie have agreed, subject to DECC approval, to equalize working interests across contiguous licenses PEDL180 and PEDL182, situated to the south and east of Crosby Warren. This will increase Europa's overall exposure to the play, including the Broughton oil discovery and a joint 3D seismic survey planned for later in 2011 will firm up drilling plans for the licenses.

Following the decision by the Surrey Planning Committee to overturn the County Planning Officer's recommendation to allow exploration drilling at Holmwood, the Company has consulted counsel and in the light of their comments and partners' support to appeal the decision, the intention is to move forward with this process. Further updates will be provided in due course.

In Romania, the Company has lodged the required documentation with the government agency to appraise the Barchiz-1 oil discovery well by deepening it to up to 2,500m in order to penetrate the anticipated repeat section of the Oligocene Sandstone reservoir encountered in nearby wells. The Barchiz Prospect therefore remains only partially tested due to the premature cessation of drilling operations at 1,450m following technical problems. It is hoped that approval will be given shortly and that the well can be deepened in October.

A program of 2D seismic acquisition is planned for the coming months in the Brodina and Cuejdiu licenses in the East Carpathian oil play. It is hoped that these additional surveys, totaling approximately 200km, will provide a well location for 2012.

Paul Barrett, Managing Director of Europa, said, "This update demonstrates our strong conveyor belt of appraisal and exploration projects for the remainder of 2011 and beyond. The plan for the next 18 months is shaping up to see the Company firstly drill up to 3 exploration wells with net resource potential of up to 48 MMbo, secondly to appraise up to 80 bcf net contingent resource and thirdly to be in a position to drill a well on a 1.7TCF potential net resource onshore France."

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Europa O&G Director to Resign

Europa O&G Director to Resign

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Europa O&G Holdings plc

Europa O&G announced that after 16 years with the Company, Paul Barrett has signaled his intention to resign as Managing Director of Europa in order to pursue other interests. Paul intends to remain with the Company during his 12 month notice period in order to effect an orderly handover.

Paul will continue to oversee the planned exploration, appraisal and development work program on the Company's assets in the UK, Romania and France as discussed in the Company's interim results statement announced on April 20.

Bill Adamson, Chairman said "Paul is a co-founder of Europa and has been instrumental in developing the Group and its assets to the current position. I'm grateful to him for his early notification, enabling the Company to carry out sensible succession planning. A search for a Chief Executive Officer will commence immediately and the Board looks forward to moving the Company to the next stage in its development as a maturing pan-European E&P business."

Europa O&G Updates Ops

Europa O&G Updates Ops

Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Europa O&G plc

Europa O&G provided an update on several active projects.

Highlights

• UK Production tested oil from two zones in the new onshore West Firsby well
• WF-9
• Installation of jet pump is key to maximizing rates
• Well stimulation work being planned for Crosby Warren
• Romania Barchiz-1 sidetrack to deepen the well to the primary target
• France 3D reprocessing complete at Berenx, new 3D and engineering work planned

West Firsby

Two zonal pumping tests have been conducted on the new WF-9 well. As previously reported, the well encountered oil in two reservoir zones.

The lower of these, Zone 2, produced oil at rates of around 80bopd with strong associated gas but very little water. Heavy wax build-up in the well and the high gas rates are thought to have impaired flow through the beam pump.

Zone 1 produces much higher volumes of fluid, but with a high water cut. Net oil production from this zone under a beam pump regime is 40bopd. The beam pump, however, is only able to drawdown the well some 300psi, indicating that there is significant production upside with a properly configured pump. It should be possible with a jet pump to produce drawdown in the region of 1,500psi or more and the main constraint will be fluid handling capacity. The recent successful re-completion of WF-3 as a water disposal well is key tool in managing this issue long term.

A jet pump system has been sourced and will be commissioned to undertake further tests on both zones. Following the results of these new tests, a longer term zonal production strategy will be decided.

The workover of WF-7, which required a new bottom hole assembly, is due to commence this week and it is hoped the well will be back onstream within the next 2 weeks. Once WF-7 is back onstream, it is expected that Group production should be approximately 300bopd with further upside expected following installation of the jet pump on WF-9 and well stimulation work at Crosby Warren.

Crosby Warren

Engineering studies are complete on the question of undertaking a new hydraulic frac stimulation of the CW-1 reservoir. The study has shown that the historical frac has become ineffective over time. Consequently, a repeat frac stimulation presents an opportunity to significantly increase field production. The original frac was highly successful and led to a 15 fold increase in production rate. It is hoped that this work can be carried out in the next 2-4 months.

Discussions are ongoing with regard to the acquisition of a new 3D seismic survey jointly with neighboring license holders later this year which would lead to a much more robust subsurface model for both the Crosby Warren field and the Company's nearby Wressle exploration prospect.

Barchiz

Barchiz-1, drilled late last year, recovered oil on DST from a shallow sandstone reservoir with approximately 35 feet of net pay. The main exploration target of the well was not reached due to technical constraints. Following partner meetings last week, Europa has declared an intention to deepen the Barchiz-1 well to the primary objective as a sole-risk operation, subject to financing. The Operator proposed acquiring further seismic data along trend from Barchiz to identify a new exploration well location in the play. However, the Directors' view is that this an opportunity to test whether the Oligocene reservoir is present beneath the current well TD, a concept supported by nearby well control.

The joint venture group has applied for a license extension in order to pursue the remaining undrilled prospectivity on the license and the associated work program is currently being agreed with the authorities. Barchiz-1 sidetrack is expected to be drilled in the second half of 2011.

Berenx

Planning the appraisal of this potentially multi-TCF gas project has taken a step forward with the completion of 3D seismic reprocessing by CGG, which has greatly improved the seismic image. NRG, the Aberdeen-based well engineering company, have been retained to undertake detailed well engineering for the planned Berenx-3 appraisal well.

In the meantime and following the success of the CGG work, further 3D seismic data is planned for later this year. This survey, which could be acquired in Q4 2011, will quantify the western extent of the Berenx structure, which tested dry gas in the 1970's.

Acquiring this survey will fulfil the work commitment of the first phase of the permit and allow for automatic renewal in early 2012.

General

It should be noted that achieving optimum rates on the new West Firsby well will take some weeks and that, in conjunction with the earlier drilling delays this will generate full year (to July 31, 2011) projected revenue and profits below market expectations.

The Company is actively engaged in new venture activity, including current and near-term licensing rounds in its core area of NW and Continental Europe. The aim is to add significant high impact exploration acreage into the asset portfolio for drilling in 2012 onwards.

Paul Barrett, Managing Director, said, "There has been significant progress in a number of value-enhancing projects and we look forward to a sustained newsflow from seismic, drilling and new venture activity through the coming 12 months. Production growth over the coming months is expected to support this activity."