Elixir Petroleum Limited announces that the farmout agreement for UKCS Block 211/18b has been finalised and signed.
Block 211/18b (Licence P1381) is a traditional licence awarded in the 23rd UKCS Licensing Round in December 2005. The current interest holders in P1381 are Elixir (80%) and its joint venture partner, Sosina Exploration Ltd (20%).
As announced on 20 February 2007, Elixir and Sosina accepted an offer from RWE Dea UK SNS Limited (“RWE”) to secure a 30% interest in Block 211/18b by contributing on a promoted basis to the cost of drilling an exploration well on the Leopard prospect within the block.
Following RWE’s farmin the interest holders in the licence will be:
- Elixir 56%
- RWE 30%
- Sosina 14%
The farmout is conditional upon the consent of the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry to the licence interest assignment.
The P1381 joint venture is actively seeking to attract another farminee such that Elixir’s and Sosina’s cost exposures to the planned Leopard well are largely covered.
Leopard is a large Upper Jurassic stratigraphic prospect which, based on Elixir’s mapping, could contain prospective hydrocarbon resources up to several hundred million barrels of oil. The prospect has been mapped from modern 3D seismic. In addition it has been derisked by a long offset seismic line linking Leopard with a producing analog, the Borg oil field, located across the median line in Norway.
Elixir’s Managing Director, Russell Langusch, commented: “We are delighted to welcome RWE into the licence and look forward to drilling our high potential Leopard prospect. The results of our most recent technical work on Leopard have been extremely positive. This gives us added confidence of attracting another farminee and proceeding with detailed planning of the exploration well.”