OilVoice - Northern Petroleum Awarded New Licence with Gas Prospect in the West Netherlands Basin

Northern Petroleum Awarded New Licence with Gas Prospect in the West Netherlands Basin

22 October 2009

An exploration licence covering the Kerkwijk South gas prospect has been awarded to Northern Petroleum Nederland B.V. (“NPN”), a wholly owned Dutch subsidiary of Northern. The Engelen Exploration Licence (“Engelen”) covers 97km² in the West Netherlands Basin, an area where NPN already holds four other exploration and production licences (Andel III, Papekop, Utrecht and Waalwijk). The prospect has been mapped from existing seismic data and is on trend to the Kerkwijk gas discovery drilled in 1988.

The licence application, in which NPN has a 100% interest, will run for 4 years and was submitted in March 2009 in competition to the prior application of a third party. Engelen is adjacent to NPN’s Utrecht licence which contains two undeveloped discoveries of immediate interest with a total gas in place 242 bcf (P50) and exploration prospects which will be evaluated in conjunction with the Engelen licence.

Upon future conversion to a production licence NPN’s 100% interest is by law subject to the election by Energie Beheer Nederland B.V. (“EBN”) to acquire a 40% paying participating interest.

Derek Musgrove, Managing Director of Northern, stated: “This award is pleasing. It was processed within 7 months, it was gained in a competitive process and it contains a mapped structure near to a gas discovery in the main play fairway. It is our 9th licence in The Netherlands bringing the gross total area in which NPN holds a licence interest to 3497 km²”.

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