San Leon Energy plc () is an independent oil and gas exploration company and is Europe's leading

shale gas Shale gas is an unconventional natural gas that is found trapped within shale formations. Since the 1990s, a combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing has made large volumes of shale gas more economical to produce, and ...

company by acreage. San Leon has built up a portfolio of assets located in Poland,

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

, Western Sahara, Albania, Ireland, Spain and Italy. The company's portfolio across these geographies is made up of both conventional exploration and shale (Poland Baltic Basin, Morocco and Spain) assets. The company's corporate headquarters is in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, Ireland while operational offices are located in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

History

Incorporated in 1995 as an oil and gas exploration company, San Leon primarily acted as an investment vehicle until 2007 when it acquired its first

oil shale Oil shale is an organic-rich Granularity, fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of Organic compound, organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons can be produced. In addition to kerogen, general compos ...

exploration assets in Morocco. In September 2008, the company listed on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

AIM AIM or Aim may refer to: Computing * AIM alliance, an Apple-IBM-Motorola alliance * AIM (software), AOL Instant Messenger * Fortyfive, a Japanese software development company previously known as AIM Military * Abrams Integrated Management, an ...

before embarking on a strategic initiative to develop a portfolio of licences and lease interests through subsidiary operations in several countries. In 2009, San Leon signed a relationship with PGS which covers a $50m facility for seismic services and will cover 50% of any seismic data collection that San Leon needs to undertake. In May 2009, Gold Point Energy was acquired. In 2010, a deal was signed with

Talisman Energy Talisman Energy Inc. was a Canadian independent petroleum company that existed between 1993 and 2015. The company was created from the assets of BP Canada after British Petroleum divested its 57 percent stake in June 1992. It was one of Canada' ...

, which saw

Talisman A talisman is any object ascribed with religious or magical powers intended to protect, heal, or harm individuals for whom they are made. Talismans are often portable objects carried on someone in a variety of ways, but can also be installed perm ...

agree to pay 60% of the costs incurred in San Leon's two Baltic Basin concessions. Also in 2010, San Leon acquired Island Oil & Gas. In 2011, it acquired Realm Energy. In May 2009, San Leon signed a three-year agreement with the Moroccan Office of Hydrocarbons and Mining for development of the

Tarfaya Tarfaya ( - ''Ṭarfāya''; ) is a coastal Moroccan town, located at the level of Cape Juby, in western Morocco, on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. It is located about 890 km southwest of the capital Rabat, and around 100 km from La ...

oil shale deposit. San Leon Energy concluded an exclusive agreement with Mountain West Energy to use the Mountain West Energy-patented ''In-Situ Vapor Extraction'' technology for a three-year pilot project at Tarfaya. In August 2012, San Leon commissioned Enefit Outotec Technology, a joint venture of

Eesti Energia Eesti Energia AS is a public limited energy company in Estonia with its headquarters in Tallinn. It is the world's biggest oil shale to energy company. The company was founded in 1939. As of 2014, it operates in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Fi ...

and

Outotec Outotec Oyj (Outokumpu Technology prior to 24 April 2007) was a Finnish company, headquartered in Espoo, aimed at providing technologies and services for the metal and mineral processing industries. In 2020, Outotec merged with Metso Minerals a ...

, to study a feasibility of an Enefit 280 production plant. In July 2015, the company announced it had entered into a controversial agreement with the Moroccan government to drill onshore occupied

Western Sahara Western Sahara is a territorial dispute, disputed territory in Maghreb, North-western Africa. It has a surface area of . Approximately 30% of the territory () is controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR); the remaining 70% is ...

. The UN stated in 2002, that any further exploration in Western Sahara would be in violation of international law, if it was not in accordance with the wishes of the people of the territory. The message about the agreement created massive protests, and it is feared that a possible oil find will complicate the work of a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

References

{{Authority control Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange Oil companies of the Republic of Ireland Natural gas companies of the Republic of Ireland