24th July 2017
Petrel Resources plc
("Petrel" or "the Company")
Highlights of Statements Made at the AGM, Dublin 24th July
All resolutions before the meeting were passed.
· Petrel has ongoing activities in the Irish Atlantic Porcupine Basin and in Ghana.
· The Irish Atlantic Porcupine Basin is now an area of renewed industry interest - due to apparent similarity to the 'West African Cretaceous play' and the 'Eastern Canada pre-rift Jurassic play'. Several majors have entered via the 2015 Bid Round, in which Petrel won 2 Licensing Options. Several 3D seismic acquisition programmes were conducted during 2016, with more underway in 2017. A separate consortium is drilling a deep water well 220 km off the Cork/Kerry coast. Any major discovery in this basin will transform industry perceptions and the farm-out market.
· Petrel holds a carried 15% stake in block FEL 3/14 in the northern Porcupine Basin, on which the 85% operator Woodside Energy, is completing an extensive 3D seismic analysis of data acquired in mid-2016. Circa 1,400 km2 of the state-of-the-art 3D data was acquired on or around FEL 3/14. The field contractor was PGS. The data has been processed by contractor DownUnder GeoSolutions (DUG) operation in Australia. The final seismic Pre-Stack Depth Migration (PreSDM) seismic data is expected to be submitted to the operator Woodside Energy, by end July, for working up drillable targets. Advanced 3D seismic interpretation of several pre-rift and syn-rift unconformities will be conducted by the operator, Woodside Energy.
· This work is intended to de-risk identified Jurassic and Cretaceous plays that may lead to one or more well commitment in the 2nd work phase, now running 1/9/2018 through 31/8/2022.
· Water depth of the survey was 500m to 1,300m, but likely water depth for Petrel's targets is likely to be 600 to 800m. These are relatively shallow depths nowadays, which should facilitate the economics of any discovery.
· Operator Woodside Energy opted not to continue into the 2nd phase on the separate FEL 4/14, in the eastern Porcupine Basin, and that separate block was relinquished without seismic having been acquired. This is now subject to arbitration in London. Petrel contends that Woodside Energy has an obligation to undertake seismic acquisition on the eastern block FEL 4/14. This is a separate obligation to that on the northern block FEL 3/14.
· Progress has been made in Ghana. The newly elected government is pursuing reforms to improve governance and expedite exploration. The Ghanaian Ministry of Energy has shown goodwill and renewed commitment to conclude an agreement.
· After years of security and governance challenges, Iraq is maybe opening up to foreign investment and technology. Security challenges made work impractical in western and north-western regions - which was exacerbated by harsh fiscal terms. Though financial and other risks are large, so are the opportunities. Iraqi oil production had crept up to 4.65 million barrels of oil daily by the November 2016 OPEC deal, and theoretically could rival Saudi Arabia's crude exports of over 10 million barrels.
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation 596/2014.
ENDS
For further information please visit http://www.petrelresources.com/ or contact:
Petrel Resources |
|
John Teeling, Chairman |
+353 (0) 1 833 2833 |
David Horgan, Director |
|
|
|
Nominated Adviser and Broker |
|
Northland Capital Partners Limited |
|
Edward Hutton / Gerry Beaney (Corporate Finance) |
+44 (0) 20 3861 6625 |
John Howes (Broking) |
|
|
|
Public Relations |
|
Blytheweigh |
+44 (0) 207 138 3204 |
Nick Elwes |
+44 (0) 783 185 1855 |
Camilla Horsfall |
+44 (0) 787 184 1793 |
|
|
Teneo PSG |
|
Ciaran Flynn |
+353 (0) 1 661 4055 |
Alan Tyrrell |
+353 (0) 1 661 4055 |
