17 December 2015
UPLAND RESOURCES LIMITED
Award of UK Onshore Oil & Gas Licence
The Directors of Upland Resources Limited ("Upland" or the "Company") are pleased to announce that, as confirmed earlier today in the announcement by the Oil and Gas Authority ("OGA"), the UK oil and gas regulator, Upland's wholly-owned subsidiary, Upland Resources (UK Onshore) Limited ("Upland UK"), along with its original bid partners (Europa Oil & Gas Limited ("Europa") and Shale Petroleum (UK) Limited ("Shale Petroleum")) together with Ineos Upstream Limited ("Ineos") (a wholly owned subsidiary of Ineos Group Limited, the global manufacturer of petrochemicals, speciality chemicals & oil products), have been formally offered a Petroleum Exploration and Development Licence ("PEDL") in respect of Blocks SK46c and SK36a in the East Midlands as part of the 14th UK Onshore Oil and Gas Licensing Round.
Block SK46c
Block SK46c is one of the two Blocks applied for by Upland UK and its original bid partners, as referred to in the Company's prospectus dated 15th October 2015 (the "Prospectus"), a copy of which is available on the Company's website at http://uplandres.com/investors/.
Upland UK, Europa, Shale Petroleum and Ineos have agreed in principle to the following participating interests in Block SK46c:-
Partner Interest
Upland UK 16.67%
Europa 16.66%
Shale Petroleum 16.66%
Ineos (Operator) 50.00%
Reflecting the differing exploration emphases of the partners, the above interests will apply to all conventional oil & gas plays in Block SK46c, whilst Ineos will have all the rights and obligations relating to unconventional oil & gas plays ('shale gas' and 'shale oil', typically requiring fracking) in Block SK46c.
Block SK46c lies to the northwest of Mansfield in the East Midlands Petroleum Province. The exploration emphasis is the rejuvenation of the historic, conventional Hardstoft Oil Field in Block SK46c, the securing of which was the primary objective of Upland UK's and its bid partners' application. Hardstoft was first drilled in 1919; this simple vertical well produced oil from Dinantian Carbonates without water cut for several years.
Upland believes that a modern high-angle well in the Hardstoft structure could access reserves over a much larger area than can have been seen by the original wells. Details of the prospectivity of Block SK46c are set out in the Prospectus. In summary, an independent Competent Person's Report ("CPR") prepared by Blackwatch Petroleum Services Limited ("Blackwatch") on behalf of Upland estimates there to be 3.10 MMbbl of contingent resource plus 3.65 MMbbl prospective resource (making a total of 6.75 MMbbl resource) in the broader Hardstoft structure alone, all sitting in Block SK46c and on a 'best' or central case basis. Total Hardstoft resource net to Upland, based on Blackwatch's CPR, is estimated at 1.125 MMbbl. Blackwatch estimates the chance of success for the contingent resource at 80% and 64% for the prospective resource. The Company estimates its interest in Hardstoft alone to be worth about 2.2p/share on a risked basis.
The minimum work commitment required by the OGA over the whole area of the PEDL is to be confirmed but is likely to include the acquisition, processing and interpretation of new 2D and 3D seismic data, plus the drilling of one well.
Should all this work be directed toward conventional oil & gas objectives in Block SK46c, then the estimated cost to Upland during the first 5 years of the PEDL will be £533,000 in aggregate; for which Upland is fully funded. However, should more of this work be focused upon unconventional objectives, then this figure is estimated to be lower.
Block SK36a
Block SK36a also lies to the northwest of Mansfield in the East Midlands Petroleum Province. Block SK36a is an additional Block which was not originally applied for by Upland UK and its original bid partners and whilst the PEDL offered to Upland UK, its original bid partners and Ineos includes this Block, due to the unconventional nature of its prospects, the parties have agreed that only Ineos will have a participating and economic interest in, and cost exposure to, this Block.
The parties have agreed in principle that Ineos will have all rights to conventional (if any) as well as non-conventional oil & gas plays in this Block. Notwithstanding that they will all be named on the PEDL, neither Upland nor Europa nor Shale Petroleum will effectively have any participating interest in, or cost exposure to, this Block.
PEDL
It is anticipated that the PEDL in respect of Blocks SK46c and SK36a will be executed by the parties in due course and an announcement will be made by Upland at that time.
Prospectus
Since the date of publication of the Prospectus on 15th October 2015, the Company has announced its results for the financial year ended 30 June 2015 and a copy of the Company's audited accounts for such financial year are available on the Company's website at http://uplandres.com/investors/.
For the avoidance of doubt, Upland UK and its original bid partners have been unsuccessful in their application for a PEDL in respect of Block SK47b, details of which were also contained in the Prospectus.
Save for matters disclosed, referred to in or contemplated by this announcement and the fact that the Placing and Admission (both as defined in the Prospectus) were completed and took place respectively on 26th October 2015, the contents of the Prospectus remain true and accurate at the date of this announcement.
Upland CEO Steve Staley said:
"The award of this this licence gives Upland a wonderful first asset within a few weeks of our London Stock Exchange Listing on 26th October 2015. With a high degree of confidence in success, this is exactly the type of low risk, low cost asset that we were seeking as the first building block in a robust portfolio. We look forward to working with our partners, who bring impressive strength and experience to the team. This award is the end result of extensive technical work by Upland and its bid partners.
In addition to our successful bid in the 14th UK Onshore Oil and Gas Licensing Round, we have not remained idle with regards to our commitment to focus upon other high impact, low-cost production and / or exploration assets and we continue to seek to take advantage of this current buyer's market in the oil and gas sector and capitalise upon opportunities. As referred to in the Company's Prospectus, we continue to review a number of attractive acquisition assets in the UK, North Africa and Western Europe.
We look forward to updating shareholders as opportunities develop".
About our partners
Europa Oil & Gas Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of AIM-listed Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc and is an experienced and successful operator onshore UK. www.europaoil.com
Shale Petroleum (UK) Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Shale Petroleum Ltd, a successful and proactive, privately owned upstream oil & gas company registered in Canada. www.shalepetroleum.com
Ineos Upstream Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ineos Group Limited, a global manufacturer of petrochemicals, speciality chemicals & oil products with sales of $54 billion and operations in 65 countries. www.ineos.com
Notes
Upland is an upstream oil & gas company whose highly experienced management has a track record of creating major value for shareholders in junior oil & gas companies, including Cove Energy. The Company has extensive technical and commercial skills and contacts, management having held senior roles in Petronas, BP, Conoco etc. Upland is taking advantage of these, its recent successful IPO (ticker UPL.L) & fundraising and the low oil price to acquire quality upstream assets on attractive terms.
