United Oil & Gas PLC Expands Portfolio With Benin Farm In (3829S)
11 March 2019 - 6:00PM
UK Regulatory
TIDMUOG
RNS Number : 3829S
United Oil & Gas PLC
11 March 2019
United Oil & Gas PLC / Index: LSE / Epic: UOG / Sector: Oil
& Gas
11(th) March 2019
United Oil & Gas PLC ("United" or the "Company")
Farms in to Bénin Licence
United Oil & Gas Plc, the oil and gas exploration and
development company, is pleased to announce that it has signed an
option agreement with Elephant Oil Ltd ("Elephant") to farm in to
their Block B onshore acreage in Bénin, potentially taking a 20%
interest in the production sharing agreement ("PSC").
The Bénin Onshore Block B is located in the Dahomey Embayment
(Coastal Basin) and covers an area of 4,590 sq km (approximately
1.1 million acres). The Block is located to the west of Bénin's
capital Cotonou continuing to the Togo border.
The Dahomey Embayment of onshore Benin is a frontier area, with
no wells drilled in it to date. However, the licence is surrounded
by prolific hydrocarbon producing regions, and there are excellent
positive indications of a working petroleum system. Not only has a
working system been demonstrated in the Shelfal area offshore Benin
- with the Seme and Dahomey fields containing approximately
100mmbbls reserves, but wells drilled along the coast in the same
Dahomey Embayment in onshore Ghana and Nigeria have encountered
hydrocarbons. Indeed, oil and gas seeps have been reported from
water wells within Benin Block B, and an extensive tar belt,
potentially indicating the migration of oil through the targeted
Cretaceous stratigraphy of Block B, has been reported to the north
east of the area.
At this point, the Block B licence data is limited to a single
seismic line and a CGG-acquired airborne Falcon Gravity Gradiometer
survey. This data suggests the presence of numerous large
structures in the licence, with the potential to hold
>200mmbbls. The Allada structure has already been identified by
Elephant Oil as a prospect.
Under the farm in option agreement, United have agreed to fund
passive seismic and field studies up to a value of $175k. The
completion of the passive seismic programme is being targeted for
April. The goal of the proposed work programme will be to calibrate
the depth to basement and obtain further information on the oil and
gas seeps. This will further de-risk maturity and migration in the
area ahead of the completion of a final decision to exercise the
farm in option.
If United chooses to exercise the option, then the Company will
farm into the PSC for a 20% interest and will be responsible to
fund 30% of the non-drilling and 20% of the drilling costs in the
Phase 1 work programme as approved under the PSC. United would also
pay Elephant the sum of US$260,000, representing one quarter of the
pro rata (20%) past costs expended by Elephant on the prospect,
with the remaining US$780,000 paid in three equal six monthly
instalments.
United CEO Brian Larkin
"We are delighted to take a position in this exciting new
opportunity. The new licence is a great fit with the United
business model, where we are continuing to build a portfolio of
near-term low risk assets and a viable producing business based in
Europe, with carefully selected frontier exploration licences with
transformational upside in South America and Africa.
"United has, for some time, stated that our technical and
commercial teams have been actively assessing a number of new
opportunities that are development and production focussed. Indeed,
a number of these more mature opportunities are under NDA and
nearing advanced stages of due diligence and commercial
negotiation; however, when this early stage, high-impact
opportunity in Benin came to our attention, we immediately
considered ourselves fortunate to be able to take a position
instantly bulking up and adding further diversification to our
high-impact portfolio offerings. This agreement in Benin is
additional to our existing pipeline of potential near-term
acquisitions and joint ventures.
"As with our assets in Jamaica, the scale of this new licence in
Benin and its proximity to other working hydrocarbon systems lend
it to having huge potential high-impact upside with early data
suggesting the presence of numerous large structures.
"Through working in Ghana and the Cote d'Ivoire, the United
management has significant experience of Western Africa. As with
our other frontier exploration acreage in Jamaica, we believe that
Benin can be transformational for United and it is indeed a
testament to the technical and commercial skills of the wider team
in being able to identify and assess such exceptional opportunities
and speedily onboard these to the growing United portfolio. This
excellent opportunity has been added to our portfolio at a very
small initial commitment and is one which we look forward to
continuing to update investors upon as we work with our new
partners to further derisk and eventually market this exciting new
play."
Dr. Jonathan Leather, an Executive Director of the Company, who
has over 20 years of relevant experience in the oil and gas
industry, has approved the information contained in this
announcement. Dr Jonathan Leather is a member of the Petroleum
Exploration Society of Great Britain and the Society of Petroleum
Engineers.
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes
of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.
**ENDS**
For more information please visit the Company's website at
www.uogplc.com or contact:
United Oil & Gas Plc (Company)
Brian Larkin brian.larkin@uogplc.com
Optiva Securities Limited (Broker)
Christian Dennis +44 (0) 20 3137 1902
Beaumont Cornish Limited (Financial
Adviser)
Roland Cornish and Felicity Geidt +44 (0) 20 7628 3396
Murray (PR Advisor) +353 (0) 87 6909735
Joe Heron jheron@murrayconsultants.ie
St Brides Partners (Financial
PR/IR)
Frank Buhagiar and Juliet Earl +44 (0) 207 236 1177
Notes to Editors
United Oil & Gas plc (UOG) is listed on the main market of
the London Stock Exchange. United was established to explore,
appraise and develop low risk assets in Europe and to develop
higher risk, higher impact exploration projects in the Caribbean,
Latin America and Africa.
The following table outlines the Company's licence
interests:
Country Licence Operator United Next Stage of Development
Interest
Italy Podere Gallina Po Valley 20% CPR Published
Licence Energy Limited Infrastructure build
2019
Production in 2020
Further seismic to
identify other opportunities
in licence 2019
------------------ ---------------- ---------- -----------------------------
UK Waddock Cross Egdon Resources 26.25% CPR Published
Field UK Limited Development drilling
targeted in 2019
------------------ ---------------- ---------- -----------------------------
UK PL090 Exploration Egdon Resources 18.95% Technical work to de-risk
UK Limited exploration targets
continuing
------------------ ---------------- ---------- -----------------------------
UK P1918 Corallian 10% Results of Colter drill
Energy Limited currently under evaluation.
------------------ ---------------- ---------- -----------------------------
UK PEDL 330 Corallian 10% Technical work to de-risk
Energy Limited exploration targets
continuing
------------------ ---------------- ---------- -----------------------------
UK PEDL 345 Corallian 10% Technical work to de-risk
Energy Limited exploration targets
continuing
------------------ ---------------- ---------- -----------------------------
UK P2366 United Oil 95% CPR published
& Gas Plc Seismic reprocessing
underway ahead of likely
Farm Down Process
------------------ ---------------- ---------- -----------------------------
Jamaica Walton-Morant Tullow Jamaica 20% CPR published
Ltd Interpretation of Seismic
ongoing ahead of Farm
Down Process
------------------ ---------------- ---------- -----------------------------
This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the
London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct
Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United
Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution
of this information may apply. For further information, please
contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.
END
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