Europa Oil & Gas has been granted a 12-month extension to the first exploration sub-period of its offshore EG-08 block in Equatorial Guinea, moving the deadline from 4 October 2026 to 4 October 2027.
The company, which focuses on oil and gas activities across West Africa, the UK and Ireland, said the extended time frame was needed to advance a farm-out transaction with Fuhai (Beijing) Energy and prepare for drilling the Barracuda-1 exploration well.
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Fuhai is a wholly owned subsidiary of the privately held Fuhai Group New Energy.
Under the terms of the extension, granted by the Ministry of Hydrocarbons and Mining Development in accordance with the Hydrocarbons Law and the EG-08 production sharing contract (PSC), all contractor rights remain in force throughout the period.
The ministry also acknowledged that the contractor had satisfied its work obligations for the sub-period through to 4 October 2026.
Europa’s associated company, Antler Global, currently operates the EG-08 PSC with an 80% working interest, while national oil company GEPetrol holds the remaining 20% on behalf of the state. Europa owns a 42.9% equity stake in Antler.
Once the farm-out is completed, Antler’s stake will be halved to 40%, with Fuhai taking an equivalent 40% interest and GEPetrol retaining its 20% share.
The farm-out agreement has already received the backing of Equatorial Guinea’s Ministry for Mining and Hydrocarbons Department, which granted its approval in May 2026.
However, the deal cannot close until Fuhai obtains Outbound Direct Investment clearance from China’s Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission.
Revised Chinese regulations governing overseas investment, introduced on 1 July 2026, have lengthened the approvals timeline, although Europa has indicated that the relevant Chinese authorities remain supportive of Fuhai’s application and are expected to give it the green light shortly.
A long-stop date for the transaction was mutually extended to 30 October 2026.
Despite the regulatory hold-up, Europa still anticipates that the Barracuda-1 well will be drilled during the first half of 2027.
The EG-08 block holds an internally estimated 2.2 trillion cubic feet of gross prospective gas resources, with the Barracuda prospect alone accounting for an estimated 878 billion cubic feet.
