U.K. independent Ascent Resources has secured the Dutch government’s participation in three offshore licenses spanning The Netherlands gas fields, it was understood Friday.

Dutch state champion, Energie Beheer Nederland BV, will, as per the law, take a 40-percent stake in exploration licenses P4, M8, M10 and M11.

Ascent has 22.5 percent paying interest in the 795 square kilometres which contain “newly recognised Carboniferous exploration plays as well as the traditional Rotliegend plays” ID’d by the Netherlands Institute of Applied Geoscience.

In M11, Shell-ESSO Netherlands tested a well in 1982 that flowed to 6,600 cubic metres per day from sandstone.