Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) Plc said Feb. 6 that its wholly owned subsidiary signed a farm-out agreement concerning a 12.5% interest in the PEDL143 license in the Weald Basin, where a well targeting the conventional Holmwood prospect will be drilled in 2017. The farm-out was signed with a wholly owned subsidiary of Angus Energy Plc.

Europa will retain a 20% interest in the license, and will pay 20% of all non-well costs but is fullly carried to drill Holmwood, the press release said. Angus will pay 25% of the costs to drill an exploration well at Holmwood up to the 3.2 million British pound cap. Angus will pay Europa 265,625 British pounds, deferred, covering back costs and a 25% uplift, the press release said.

The farm-out is subject to regulatory approval by the Oil & Gas Authority.

The well is targeting gross mean unrisked prospective resources of 5.6 million barrels (MMbbl) of oil, and the press release said Holmwood will penetrate similar stratigraphy to the nearby Brockham oil field and the Horse Hill oil discovery, targeting oil in Upper and Lower Kimmeridge Limestones and Corallian and Portlandian sandstones. But, the 5.6 MMbbl prospective resources at Holmwood do not include an estimate for the Kimmeridge limestones that produced oil at Horse Hill.

The press release said that PEDL143 is in an area of the Weald Basin where 14 oil and gas fields have been found, and an estimated 50 MMbbl discovered--of which, 30 MMbbl have been produced to date.