On 23 July 2019 the Dutch Ministry confirmed that an exploration licence has been awarded to Neptune and HALO for block F5 for a period of four years. The detailed work programme must be submitted in year two, with a well due in year three. The award is effective from 3 October 2019. The original application for the licence (for a six-year term) was made on 19 June 2015 by Van Dyke but the company subsequently withdrew its application. Neptune (then GDF Suez) and HALO both made separate competing bids (both requesting a four-year term). The licence lies to the south of the Hanze oil and gas fields (Dana) and to the west of the F3-FB oil and gas field (Neptune), all of which are producing. Industry sources indicated the licence has a shallow gas anomaly that will be targeted and Neptune confirmed in late November 2019 that they will target a Tertiary gas reservoir.  Five wells have previously been drilled in F5: F5-1 by Tenneco in 1975, F5-2 by BP in 1982, F5-3 by Mobil in 1987, F5-4 by RWE in 1998 and F5-5 by Veba in 2001. All were dry holes except F5-4 which encountered oil shows.     Hanze was discovered in 1996 by F2-5 which found a 76 m oil column in the Paleocene and Upper Cretaceous chalks of the Ekofisk and Ommelanden formations. The reservoir lies between 1,340 m and 1,478 m subsea and the API of the oil is 37Â°. The field was developed using a manned production platform and a tanker mooring and loading system. Oil is exported via shuttle tanker and gas via NOGAT. In 2009 gas production started from the shallow Pliocene reservoir at Hanze. Originally the Pliocene was considered too challenging to develop but new drilling techniques meant that this reservoir could be re-assessed. In October 2013 Dana reported that Hanze infill well F2-A6ST3 had doubled oil production from the field. When the field came onstream in August 2001 end of field life was projected for 2011, reserves were 47 MMboe and the recovery factor was 30%. However, these figures have later been revised: the recovery factor has increased to 53%, reserves are put at 67 MMbo plus approximately 20 Bcfg and the field is expected to produce until 2030.  Interest in F5 is divided between Neptune Energy Netherlands BV (operator), HALO Exploration & Production Netherlands BV and Energie Beheer Nederland BV (40%).
Neptune and HALO were awarded block F5.