Europa Oil & Gas Eyes 2026 Drilling with PSC Extension in Equatorial Guinea
October 6, 2025
Europa Oil & Gas has received a one-year extension from the Minister of Hydrocarbons and Mining Development for Equatorial Guinea for the initial two-year period of the EG-08 production sharing contract (PSC), with the plans for drilling of the Barracuda prospect set for 2026.
Europa Oil & Gas holds a 42.9% equity interest in Antler Global, which has an 80% working interest in the EG-08 PSC. The remaining 20% is held by GEPetrol, the national oil and gas company of Equatorial Guinea, representing the state’s interest.
Formalities to finalize the extension are ongoing and expected to be completed in the coming days. As a result, the first sub-period of Phase 1 of the PSC will now expire on October 4, 2026.
The EG-08 block contains 2.196 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas (Pmean), with the primary prospect Barracuda estimated at 878 billion cubic feet (BCF) (Pmean).
“I am pleased to have secured the Minister’s approval for this extension which will provide plenty of time to finalize the farm out process for EG-08, where we continue to make good progress. Concurrently, the technical team are working on detailed engineering plans for drilling the Barracuda prospect, which we hope to spud in 2026,” said William Holland, Chief Executive Officer of Europa.
Block EG-08, located offshore in the Douala Basin of Equatorial Guinea, is held by Antler Global Ltd, a company set up to acquire the EG-08 block. The PSC became effective in October 2023, with Antler holding an 80% working interest and GEPetrol holding the remaining 20%.
The EG-08 block covers 731 square kilometers and has three high-graded prospects assessed to have similar AVO characteristics to the Alen and Aseng fields and other discoveries in Chevron’s Blocks O and I to the south. The prospects are covered with 3D seismic data and lie in about 80 meters of water, with reservoir targets at around 2,800 meters, drillable with a jack-up rig.
The three prospects have been defined using standard Amplitude Variation with Offset (AVO) techniques. Since 2005, nine exploration wells have been drilled in this area using AVO techniques, eight of which were discoveries. Volumes across the prospects are estimated at mean prospective resources of 2.116 TCFE (gas and condensate).
