Europa Partners With Fuhai on Equitorial Guinea’s Barracuda Gas Project
In a statement issued on 30 December 2025, UK firm Europa Oil & Gas announced that it has signed a binding agreement with China’s Fuhai Group to develop the offshore gas field in Equatorial Guinea. Under the Farm-Out Agreement, Fuhai will contribute 95% of financing for the drilling costs capped at USD 53 million in exchange for a 40% stake. Any cost overruns above the cap will be split equally between Europa and Fuhai.
After the deal, the shareholding structure will be that Fuhai and Europa will both hold 40%, while the national oil company of Equatorial Guinea has 20% as per the Production Sharing Contract. The Barracuda project site is located off the coast of Bioko Island and is labeled as EG-08 offshore Block. Antler Global will continue to operate and manage the site. Based on earlier prospection, the Barracuda field has an estimated reserve of 893 billion cubic feet (bcf) of natural gas.
“The signing of the Farm-Out Agreement with Fuhai is the culmination of three years of hard work to first identify the opportunity at EG08 and then, working as one team with Antler, to work up the prospectivity of the EG08 block then to secure an excellent partner to carry us through drilling. The farm-in is without question a great result for Europa and equates to a 2.38 for 1 carry, which reflects the quality of the asset. 2026 is going to be a pivotal year for Europa, and I look forward to updating the market as we secure the necessary approvals.
Europa CEO William Holland
“Fuhai Group is one of China’s largest private petrochemical company involved in both upstream and downstream hydrocarbon activities in China. It extracts 10 million tonnes of crude oil from the Kenli Block in the Bohai Bay. Fuhai also has a retail portfolio with 800 petrol stations. In 2024, Fuhai posted revenues of USD 12.7 billion and is among the Top 500 companies in China.
The Barracuda Project has now entered into the engineering and procurement stage and drilling is expected to start in 2026. The transaction is subject to the regulatory approval of the Ministry of Mining and Hydrocarbons of Equatorial Guinea and the Shandong Provincial Government, which oversees companies in its region.