New CPR

2 April 2015

 

Sound Oil plc

("Sound Oil" or the "Company")

 

New CPR

 

Sound Oil, the European / Mediterranean focused upstream oil and gas company, is pleased to announce the results of an updated Competent Person's Report ("CPR").

 

CGG Services (UK) Limited ("CGG Services") has completed an independent CPR on Sound Oil's portfolio, excluding Badile, Zibido and Casa Tiberi (the "CGG CPR").  The CGG CPR includes a full technical and economic review undertaken on Rapagnano, Carita, Laura and D503-BR-CS, with the other assets being subject to only an economic review (relying instead on the technical reviews included in prior CPRs produced by CGG - in October 2011 for Villa Gigli and Costa del Sole and in July 2014 for Santa Maria Goretti).

 

A full CPR on the Company's largest and most strategic asset, Badile, was already announced by the Company on 8 October 2013 (the "2013 CPR").  The 2013 CPR confirmed a gross best case prospective resources estimate of 178 Bscfe with a high case estimate of 673 Bscfe and a low case estimate of 46 Bscfe.  A 2010 CPR (the "2010 CPR") confirmed a best case prospective resources gas estimate of 130 Bscf for the Company's Zibido prospect.

 

Highlights of the CGG CPR

 

·     Broadening of the Company's core Italian gas portfolio to include the D503-BR-CS licence (the Dora discovery and the Dalla prospect)

 

·     Confirmation of the scale of the current Italian portfolio

 

o  4.0 Bscf of Proved and Probable Reserves (of which 1.6 Bscf is already Proved), with a further 5.7 Bscf of Possible Reserves

 

o  66.7 Bscfe of best case estimate Contingent Resources (comprising 42.1 Bscf of gas and 4.1mmbo)

 

o  77.8 Bscfe of best case estimate Prospective Resources (comprising 61.0 Bscf of gas and 2.8mmbo), in addition to the 308.3 Bscfe from the Badile and Zibido prospects

 

·     The inclusion of two early stage onshore oil discoveries in the licences of Villa Gigli and Costa del Sole

 

 

Total Recoverable Resources

 

The Company's latest estimates of recoverable reserves and resources (aggregating the results of the CGG CPR, the 2013 CPR and the 2010 CPR) are shown in the table below:

 

			Sound Oil plc:  Equity Interest	Reserves (Bscfe)			Contingent Resources (Bscfe)				Prospective Resources (Bscfe)
Licence		Asset	%	1P	2P	3P	1C	2C	3C	CoD %	Low	Best	High	CoS %
Rapagnano		Rapagnano	100%	0.8	1.1	1.3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Carita		Nervesa	100%*	0.7*	3.0*	8.5*	5.9	10.3	18.0	100	-	-	-	-
DR74-AP		Laura	100%	-	-	-	12.3	14.2	21.4	70/75/82	0.6	2.9	4.2	56
Santa Maria Goretti		Santa Maria Goretti	100%	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	9.7	33.4	67.7	68
D503-BR-CS		Dora / Dalla	100%	-	-	-	7.9	17.6	24.0	50	8.9	24.6	50.5	56
Villa Gigli		Musone	100%	-	-	-	2.4	10.2	17.4	50	-	-	-	-
Costa del Sole		Manfria / Cielo	100%	-	-	-	13.2	14.4	16.2	50	14.4	16.8	19.8	43
Total CGG CPR (excl Badile/Zibido)				1.6	4.0	9.8	41.7	66.7	97.0	N/A	33.6	77.8	142.3	N/A
Badile	Badile		100%	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	46.0	178.1	673.3	22
Badile	Zibido (gas case)		100%	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	N/A	130.2	>130**	14
Total				1.6	4.0	9.8	41.7	66.7	97.0	N/A	79.6	386.1	945.6	N/A

CoS - Chance of Success

CoD - Chance of Development

* - reserve volumes stated as 100%; CSTI have a 36.5% profit interest for the first 4 years of production

** - the 2010 CPR did not include a high case estimate; the table above assumes the best case as a minimum high case

 

Illustrative NPV10 estimates of the total recoverable resources are shown in the appendix below.  These estimates will be reflected in the Q2 investor presentation which will be available from the Company's website shortly.

 

 

James Parsons, Sound Oil's Chief Executive Officer commented:

 

"The CGG CPR results are very pleasing and serve to:

 

·        validate the scale of our Italian portfolio, blending cost covering production and low risk existing discoveries with significant blue sky exploration potential;

 

·        provide the first opportunity to reveal the Dora discovery and the Dalla prospect, which are new, material, yet low risk offshore gas assets very close to producing platforms and other existing infrastructure; and

 

·        prepare the way for the next stage of development of our Italian business including various asset funding and partnership arrangements.

 

Meanwhile site preparations continue at Nervesa in anticipation of the forthcoming drill which is expected to prove up significant further reserves."

 

For further information please contact:

 

Vigo Communications - PR Adviser Patrick d'Ancona Chris McMahon	Tel: +44 (0)20 7016 9573
Sound Oil James Parsons, Chief Executive Officer	[email protected]
Smith & Williamson - Nominated Adviser Azhic Basirov David Jones Ben Jeynes	Tel: +44 (0)20 7131 4000
Peel Hunt - Broker Richard Crichton Charles Batten	Tel: +44 (0)20 7418 8900

 

The information contained in this announcement and appendix has been reviewed by Sound Oil's Italian Managing Director, Luca Madeddu, a qualified petroleum geologist.  NPV10 refers to a net present value at a discount rate of 10%; Bscf means billion standard cubic feet of gas; BScfe means billion standard cubic feet of gas equivalent; cbm means cubic metre of gas; mmbo mean million barrels of oil; bbl means barrel of oil; CoS means chance of success; 1P, 2P, 3P, 1C, 2C 3C, low, best and high case estimates refer to the probability of finding a given volume consistent with SPE (The Society of Petroleum Engineers) guidelines.

 

 

APPENDIX

 

The tables below show illustrative NPV10 estimates taken from the CGG CPR (where available) for the following scenarios: 1P/1C/low case; 2P/2C/best case; 3P/3C/high case:

 

		1P/1C/low case NPV10 EUR M
Licence	Assets	Price 1	Price 2	Price 3	Price 4	Price 5
Rapagnano	Rapagnano	1.85	2.10	2.35	2.60	2.85
Carita	Nervesa	6.33	8.12	9.9	11.5	13.29
DR74-AP	Laura	10.97	14.55	18.13	21.71	25.29
S. Maria Goretti	S. Maria Goretti	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
D503-BR-CS	Dora / Dalla	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Villa Gigli	Musone	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Costa del Sole	Manfria / Cielo	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

 

		2P/2C/best case NPV10 EUR M
Licence	Assets	Price 1	Price 2	Price 3	Price 4	Price 5
Rapagnano	Rapagnano	2.14	2.44	2.73	3.02	3.31
Carita	Nervesa	23.04	26.25	29.47	32.69	35.91
DR74-AP	Laura	22.41	26.76	31.10	35.45	39.79
S. Maria Goretti	S. Maria Goretti	36.27	41.08	45.90	50.71	55.52
D503-BR-CS	Dora / Dalla	34.70	42.65	50.60	58.55	66.50
Villa Gigli	Musone	8.26	10.40	12.54	14.68	16.82
Costa del Sole	Manfria / Cielo	-2.58	4.27	11.07	17.84	24.63
Total		124.24	153.85	183.41	212.94	242.48

 

		3P/3C/high case NPV10 EUR M
Licence	Assets	Price 1	Price 2	Price 3	Price 4	Price 5
Rapagnano	Rapagnano	2.38	2.70	3.02	3.35	3.67
Carita	Nervesa	48.34	53.75	59.17	64.58	69.99
DR74-AP	Laura	40.83	46.73	52.63	58.53	64.43
S. Maria Goretti	S. Maria Goretti	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
D503-BR-CS	Dora / Dalla	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Villa Gigli	Musone	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Costa del Sole	Manfria / Cielo	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

 

The 2015 price scenarios utilised in the preparation of the CGG CPR NPV10 estimates shown above are summarised in the below table.  The oil prices have been escalated according to a Brent futures curve until 2022 and from then at 2% per annum and the gas prices have been escalated at 2% per annum from 2016.

 

	Price Scenario summary
2015 Prices	Price 1	Price 2	Price 3	Price 4	Price 5
Oil Price: EUR / bbl	38.64	43.47	48.30	53.13	57.96
Gas Price: EUR cent / cbm	23.0	25.0	27.0	29.0	31.0