Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc has been granted a further two years to gather seismic data and drill an appraisal well at its operated Cloughton gas discovery in Scarborough, North Yorkshire.
IMPACT
The 40% licence owner estimates that the field, within PEDL343, holds Pmean gross gas initially in place volumes of 192 billion cubic feet.
The North Sea Transition Authority extended the first phase of the project, due to expire in July 2026, to 21 March 2028. The second phase expires on 21 July 2030.
Europa plans to acquire 17km2 of 3D seismic data and drill an appraisal well to 6,500 ft total vertical depth below the sub sea datum.
The operator submitted its planning application in 2025 for the well.
“This onshore field is close to the NTS [National Transmission System] and as such a successful appraisal well will allow the field to be brought online quickly, ” said chief executive officer William Holland.
“The domestic gas produced from Cloughton would not only displace high GHG [green house gas] intensity imported LNG [liquefied natural gas], generate well paid local jobs, provide gas to heat almost half of the homes in North Yorkshire and generate over £50m in taxes, but importantly it would largely be unnoticed by the local community yet provide a material positive impact to local community groups, as demonstrated at our other onshore UK production sites.”
Europa also has interests offshore Equatorial Guinea and Ireland as well as onshore UK.