Petroceltic wins nine permits offshore Italy

Petroceltic International plc, an Irish headquartered oil and gas exploration company, announce that its fully owned Italian subsidiary, Petroceltic Elsa Srl., has been granted nine exclusive exploration permits in the central Adriatic offshore Italy.

Petroceltic has a 100 percent interest in the nine permit awards, which are d492, d493, d494, d495, d496, d407, d498, d499, and d500. However, the permits, d492 and d493, which were subject to a competitive external bid.

The company claims that with the award of the these permits, and its existing interest in the BR 268RG offshore permit, give the company access to a near contiguous proven hydrocarbon play fairway of over 2,660 square kilometres along the Apulian Carbonate platform margin offshore Italy.

The permits in water depth depths of 30 to 150 meters are located adjacent to existing oil and gas fields which have demonstrated three working hydrocarbon plays in this region; the Cretaceous Miglianico/Elsa basin floor fan and the Cretaceous-to Miocene Rospo Mare/Ombrina Mare platform carbonate oil plays, the latter recently successfully drilled by the OM-2 well, and the Santo Stefano Mare Pliocene biogenic gas play.