RNS8 May 2018 08:16
Prospex Oil and Gas Plc / Index: AIM / Epic: PXOG / Sector: Oil and Gas
8 May 2018
Prospex Oil and Gas Plc ('Prospex' or the 'Company')
Portfolio Update
Prospex Oil and Gas Plc, the AIM quoted investment company, provides the following update on its portfolio of investments focused on high impact onshore and shallow offshore European opportunities with short timelines to production.
Bainet-1 well, EIV-1 Suceava Concession, onshore Romania
Following the gas discovery by the Bainet-1 well on the Exploration Area of the EIV-1 Suceava Concession, ('Suceava Exploration'), work has been undertaken by the operator, Raffles Energy S.R.L. ('Raffles'), to bring the discovery into production in H1 2018, subject to permitting consent. The operator reports land access for the routing of pipeline connecting the discovery to existing production facilities has been secured. In addition, front-end engineering and design work has been completed, while permitting, procurement and contractor selection are well advanced. The physical pipeline construction and tie-in work will begin once the final construction permit is received.
Prospex's wholly-owned subsidiary PXOG Massey Limited has a 50% non-operated interest in Suceava Exploration.
Tesorillo Project, southern Spain
The 2018 work programme, which is designed to further test known gas bearing sandstone sequences at the 38,000ha Tesorillo Project ('Tesorillo' or 'the Project') is ongoing. This programme is focused on de-risking a known gas discovery on Tesorillo, which a Competent Person's Report undertaken by Netherland Sewell and Associates ("NSAI") in 2015 estimated could hold gross unrisked Prospective Resources of 830 billion cubic feet of gas (Best Estimate), with upside in excess of 2 Tcf. Tesorillo is located in a proven hydrocarbon region in the Cadiz Province, southern Spain.
The 2018 work programme is being undertaken by the operator and licence holder Schuepbach Energy Espania ('SEE'). To date preparatory field work has been undertaken at the Project ahead of the commencement of an Audio Magnetotellurics ('AMT') survey in late H1 2018. The AMT survey will evaluate the subsurface geology of the licence area and test for resistivity, as a further indicator of the presence of hydrocarbons. The operator expects to appoint a contractor to carry out this work shortly, at which point the Company will update the market accordingly.
As announced on 19 December 2017, Prospex currently holds a 2.5% interest in SEE and has the option to increase this to 49.9% based on the results of the 2018 work programme. The other shareholder of SEE is Scheupbach Energy Internation LLP ('SEI'). SEI is in turn 62.7% owned by Petrel Energy (ASX: PRL) ('PRL') and 37.3% by Schuepbach International Holdings ('SIH'). Prospex is aware that PRL and SIH have announced a reorganisation of their joint interests and as a result PRL will take a 100% interest in the non-Prospex owned interest i