Five Companies Reports Awards of Licences In Offshore UK

LONDON (Alliance News) - Five London-listed oil & gas companies on Wednesday reported the awards of new licences in the UK North sea by the Oil & Gas Authority as part of the UK 31st offshore licensing round.

Reabold Resources PLC, the owner of a 32.9% stake in Corallian Energy Ltd, reported the award of five new licences to Corallian, of which three are in conjunction with several joint venture partners.

Corallian has been awarded one licence in the English Channel where it has a 49% interest and two in the Inner Moray Firth, both of which are held on a 40% stake by Corallian.

Furthermore, Corallian has been offered on a 100% interest basis one licence in the Viking Graben and one in the West of Shetland basin, Reabold said.

Andalas Energy & Power PLC, which holds a 8% stake in Corallian's English Channel licences, confirmed the award.

Andalas said that Corallian, together with its partners UOG Colter, Baron Oil and Corfe Energy have been offered blocks 98/11b and 98/12 in the English Channel.

Simon Gorringe, Andalas chief executive, said: "We are pleased that our application has been successful and look forward to furthering this opportunity with our partners."

Baron Oil, a partner of Corallian both in the English Channel with an 8% stake and in the Moray Firth with a 15% interest, also noted the award of the licences in participation with the other partners.

Meanwhile, United Oil & Gas PLC said it has been awarded four blocks in the UK North Sea, on a 100% basis.

The company is also a participant in Corallian's English Channel partnership in which it offered a 10% stake.

Finally, Upland Resources Ltd said it received award of licences covering seven blocks on the UK Continental Shelf.

Upland has a 40% interest in Corallian's Inner Moray Firth joint venture.

Andalas shares were trading 1.2% higher at 0.167 pence, Baron Oil shares were untraded at 0.12p, Reabold shares were 1.3% lower at 0.74p, United Oil & Gas shares were down 1.6% at 3.15p and Upland shares were down 2.7% at 1.99p.