Proactive Investors - Europa Oil & Gas Holdings (LON:EOG) has published an updated emissions study for its envisaged Irish offshore gas project, Inishkea West.
The report, assessing the company’s offshore licence FEL 4/19, highlights significant environmental benefits of producing natural gas domestically from Inishkea compared to imported gas.
The study was conducted by environmental consultant sustain:able, which highlighted reduced emissions forecast for indigenous gas from the prospective Inishkea West site compared to current imports to Ireland from the UK and other sources.
It claims that gas produced from Inishkea West could drastically cut Ireland's reliance on higher-emission imported gas - for example, it says that indigenous gas from the licence is expected to emit only 2.8 kgCO2e/boe compared to 36 kgCO2/boe for UK imported gas in 2022.
Europa is currently undertaking a farm-out process which seeks to bring into the venture a partner to support project funding.
"This updated emissions report reinforces the importance of the gas resource at Inishkea West, which has the potential to not only eradicate the need for higher emissions intensity gas imports from the UK for up to 3 years, but also a discovery would help Ireland meet its carbon emission reduction targets,” Europa chief executive Will Holland said in a statement.
“A discovery at Inishkea West could provide security of gas supply for Ireland during the transition to renewable energy, which is in line with the EU's stated goals for diversity of gas supply."
Holland added: “FEL 4/19 contains the large 1.5 TCF low-risk Inishkea West gas prospect where, given the proximity to existing infrastructure, a discovery could be brought online quickly providing domestic gas with, as this report demonstrates, significantly lower emissions intensity than imported gas from the UK, Norway or further afield.
“We are now in the process of progressing FEL 4/19 to drilling, which requires us to attract additional partners to this highly prospective licence."