Oil & gas giant Cairn Energy Plc (CNE.L, CRNCY.PK, CRNZF.PK) announced a farm-in as operator to two licences offshore West of Ireland in the Porcupine Basin, containing the undeveloped Spanish Point gas condensate and Burren oil discoveries, and six adjacent licensing option blocks. The acreage covers an area of 2,753km2 with over 500km2 of 3D seismic and would provide locations for Cairn's frontier drilling programme.
The two licences - FEL 2/04 and FEL 4/08, together cover an area of 1,242km2 - are currently operated by Chrysaor with Providence Resources and SOSINA Exploration Ltd.
Cairn said it would buy a 38% WI and Operatorship by paying a pro-rated share of back costs totaling $4.1million and 63.33% of future exploration and appraisal costs for up to two wells, subject to a cap. Costs in excess of the cap would be shared by the parties according to their equity interests. Based on Cairn's estimate of the expected well cost, Cairn anticipates that it would be contributing nearly 55% of the cost of each well.
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