Elixir Increases Focus on Conventional Gas Over Unconventional at Moselle Permit

Australian listed Elixir Petroleum has said that it had increased its focus on the conventional gas prospects in the Moselle Permit in France due to a ban on hydraulic fracturing in place in the country. 

In a statement released today, the company said that the fracking ban had necessitated the change of focus as it continued to seek farm-out partners for the East Paris basin permit area. 

"We remain in discussions with interested parties in relation to the resource play, which we believe holds significant contingent potential," Elixir’s Managing Director, Andrew Ross said. "We have received great encouragement from our engagement with industry participants who have provided us with a further source of independent verification of the potential associated with the giant unconventional resource play and the new conventional plays we have identified within the Moselle Permit.

"But we consider better value will be able to be achieved for shareholders in the near term by focusing on the farm-out of the large conventional prospects we have identified, whilst we await policy developments in terms of unconventional resource plays in France."

Though the permit is positive for unconventional gas resources, the company says that potential farm-out partners had had difficulty estimating the value of the permit due to the French fracking ban. 

"The inability to stimulate wells, and a lack of certainty as to when this situation might be reconsidered in France, has meant that participants have experienced difficulty in attempting to quantify an appropriate work programme to advance the resource play," a statement from Elixir said today. "This has necessarily impacted the value they place on the significant contingent potential of the unconventional resource play."

As a result, the company says that it has identified 25 conventional prospects on the permit as well as 15 leads, totalling 40 conventional targets, an increase from the 34 identified in February of this year.