Europa sees strong gas potential in Corrib area offshore Ireland

Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) has issued a progress report on its studies of licensing option (LO) 16/20 in the Slyne basin, offshore north-west Ireland. The permit is adjacent to the producing Corrib gas field.

Europa has mapped various promising structures which could be gas bearing, potentially with total in-place resources of more than 2.5 tcf, in water depths of 400-600 metres (1,312-1,968 feet).

This follows the company’s review of legacy 3D seismic and data recently released from the 18/20-7 exploration well drilled by Shell in 2010 into Corrib North, a Triassic sandstone reservoir prospect in LO 16/20.

Log data from the well indicates the presence of gas at Corrib North, which is a separate anticline around seven kilometres (4.3 miles) north of the Corrib field.

Europa believes the full gas column at Corrib North has the potential to be 170 metres (558 feet) thick, with the surface area of the structure at around 5.75 square kilometres (2.22 square miles).

Other prospective gas-bearing structures on the licence include Foyle, Foyle North and Foyle West prospects, roughly 16 kilometres (9.9 miles) north-west of Corrib, which could hold more than two tcf gas in place combined.

The company has commissioned a subsurface and production engineering consultancy to provide estimates for gas in place, prospective resources, and possible contingent resources for Corrib North during the first half of 2018.

Its next steps will be to perform pre-stack depth migration reprocessing of the legacy 3D seismic data over the licence, mature prospects to drillable status, and instigate a farm-out.