Parkmead has signed a sale and purchase agreement with Verus Petroleum (SNS) to acquire a 50% interest in UK North Sea Licence P.2209 which features the Farne Extension prospect and a further four prospective leads.

Licence P.2209 comprises two adjacent blocks, Block 42/19 and Block 42/20b. Parkmead currently holds a 50% interest in the licence and therefore this acquisition doubles Parkmead’s equity to 100%.

The collection of prospects and leads within the licence, which is operated by Parkmead, have the potential to contain 175 billion cubic feet of gas initially in place on a most likely, P50 basis.  Completion of the acquisition is subject to normal regulatory approvals.

Blocks 42/19 and 42/20b are situated in the Southern Gas Basin of the UK North Sea, directly to the south east of the Breagh gas field. The Primary play fairway developed on this acreage is the Carboniferous sands, which form the productive reservoirs in the nearby gas fields at Breagh, Kilmar and Cavendish.

The most prominent prospect on the block is the Farne Extension, which is a north westerly extension of the Farne prospect mapped in the adjacent block to the east. To date, four additional leads have been indentified at Carboniferous level within the blocks, all of which, like the Farne Extension, are structural closures mapped at Base Permian level.

The Carboniferous contains fluvial channel sandstones which provide the reservoir intervals in the region of Blocks 42/19 and 42/20b, where clean quartzitic units form the main productive horizons and can contain large volumes of gas in place. Excellent geological seals exist within the area, namely mudstones of the overlying Silverpit Formation and evaporites of the Zechstein Supergroup.

Parkmead’s experienced team of geoscientists intends to obtain new high-quality 3D seismic data in order to refine the largest targets on these blocks, and carry outseismic attribute analysis to predict good quality reservoir areas. This new data will be analysed to de-risk the targets ahead of drilling decisions.

Parkmead has a 100% track record of drilling success in the UK Southern Gas Basin to date. The Company has drilled two wells in the area, a horizontal appraisal well at Platypus, which flow tested at 27 million cubic feet per day, and an exploration well at Pharos which discovered a new UK gas field. 

Further value-adding opportunities

Parkmead continues to analyse a number of further value-adding opportunities, including UK and Netherlands based acquisitions, and is focused on strengthening its position in these core areas of the Group’s portfolio. The Parkmead business development team is seeing an upturn in M&A activity in our industry, and Parkmead’s strong and debt free balance sheet positions the Company well to take advantage of this improving environment.

Tom Cross, Executive Chairman, commented: “We are delighted to double our stake in this attractive area, which expands Parkmead’s portfolio in the Southern Gas Basin.

Parkmead has a 100% track record of drilling success in the UK Southern Gas Basin to date, with successful wells drilled at Platypus and Pharos.

The team at Parkmead is working intensively to evaluate and execute further value-adding acquisitions in our core areas of the UK and Netherlands.”