Europa Oil cedes Moroccan licence

London-listed Europa Oil & Gas has ceded rights to the Inezgane licence off the coast of Morocco, the company said on November 23.

The licence extension announced in October 2020 has now come to an end, and Europa has opted not to extend it any further, the company said.

"Europa is in the final stages of completing all its obligations for Inezgane and expects to complete the final relinquishment report shortly," Europa said. " Once this final obligation has been satisfied the bank guarantee of $315,000 will be released and repaid to Europa, following which the company will have no further interests associated with Inezgane."

Europa is giving up the licence after finding a farm-in partner for the project. Only a week ago, the company said it was continuing efforts to farm out a stake in Inezgane, describing it as a "high-impact exploration opportunity in a highly underexplored area of the world", and another licence off Ireland.

"It has been a difficult decision not to progress to the first extension period as Inezgane offers significant exploration potential. However, progressing to the next stage would have required Europa to commit to drilling an exploration well, which we could not justify without obtaining another partner," Europa CEO Simon Oddie said in a statement. "We have been working tirelessly with advisors to secure a farm-in partner but the market appetite for offshore deep water oil exploration is currently very low and we have ultimately been unsuccessful."