May 14, 2013 - Europa Oil & Gas has been granted consent by the Irish Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources to transfer interest and operatorship of Licensing Options (LO) 11/7 and 11/8 to a subsidiary of Kosmos Energy Ltd. Kosmos now operates and owns 85% of the licenses covering a total area of roughly 770 square miles in the South Porcupine Basin on the Irish Atlantic Margin. Under the terms of the farm-in, Kosmos will fully fund a 3D seismic program on each license and pay 85% of costs incurred by Europa to date. The partners will now submit an application to the Irish Government to convert each license into a 15-year Frontier Exploration License. Key targets in each license are the Mullen and Kiernan prospects which represent the same Cretacious stratigraphic play Kosmos pursued in the Atlantic Margin Basins off West Africa.

May 14, 2013 - BG Norge was given consent to carry out development drilling, completion operations and well testing on the Knarr field using the Transocean Searcher (mid-water semisub). The development program is expected to commence in June 2013 and last for 90-days. Knarr is estimated to hold 60 MMboe worth of gross reserves. Production will be facilitated through two production wells tied-back to a leased FPSO.

May 13, 2013 - Statoil and Total are interested in swapping equity in adjacent Norwegian assets in the Barents Sea. If approved by the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, Statoil will acquire 10% equity from Total in PL535 and Total will acquire 10% equity in PL395 from Statoil. Both licenses are located on the Bjarmeland Platform area in the central Barents Sea, an area with proven gas resources. License PL395 contains the Ververis discovery and PL535 contains Norvarg and Norvarg South. An appraisal well is currently being drilled at Norvarg South.

May 7, 2013 - Lundin Petroleum reports the previously announced production test of the Luno II discovery well is complete. Well 16/4-6S was drilled by the Bredford Dolphin (mid-water semisub) and encountered 131 gross feet of oil pay. A flow rate of more than 2,000 bopd was achieved through a 48/64 inch choke with a gas to oil ration of 1,100 scf/bbl. Lundin estimates the Luno II structure to contain gross contingent resources of 25 to 120 MMboe along with 10 to 40 MMboe of prospective resources for he Luno II North segment.

Apr 30, 2013 - Talisman Energy Norge AS was granted a drilling permit for well 2/1-16 S by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD). The wildcat will be the second well drilled in production license PL299 and is designed to target the company's Frode prospect. Frode is estimated to hold gross mean unrisked resources of 18 MMboe. Its proximity to the producing Gyda field could turn it into a fast-track development if a commercial discovery is made.