WH Ireland comment3 Sep 2018 13:31
Frontera Resources (FRR) – Corporate – Entered non-disclosure and Data Exchange Agreements with two industry majors
Market Cap £36m Share Price 0.23p
Frontera announced that it has entered into non-disclosure and data exchange agreements with two industry majors and that it is currently progressing with technical work and commercial discussions regarding possible transactions involving a farmout or joint operating agreement within its Block 12 in Georgia. Frontera confirmed that both parties attended extended site surveys and management meetings.
As a result of these discussions and to assist with data analysis, the company has been conducting extended well tests to better establish production capabilities (previously announced). The company indicated that due to the current technical and commercial discussions with industry majors, which may lead to a farmout or joint operating agreement, Frontera has changed its ongoing well test program such that current production from Zones 14, 15 (wells Dino-2 and T-45) and 19 (well T-39) will continue for a longer period of time than what was anticipated before and additional tests could potentially be performed.
The company indicated that production from the Eldari A (inclusive of Zones 14 and 15) could be comingled with production from Eldari B (Zones 19, 23 and 25). For context, in our opinion proven production from Zone 9 (over 8 years of production history) has established that drilling wells and producing from Zone 9 alone would generate value (positive NPV) using a 10% discount rate, assuming a $70/b Brent crude oil price. However, to attract material development capital we believe that even more generous economic returns would be required compared to the traditional 10% that is usually applied to determine the theoretical value of oil & gas assets. Therefore each additional potential zone Frontera is testing has highly material capacity to “flick the switch” and establish the commercial viability of the Taribani oilfield in terms of its ability to attract capital.
WHI had identified i) the extraordinary scale of the Taribani oilfield, with a lateral extent of circa 80km2; ii) the exceptionally high quality of the oil bearing sands (Zones 9, 13, 14, 19, 23 and 25, albeit we initially emphasised the shallower zones with the deeper zones now emerging as potentially being better) relative to US tight-oil plays that are being commercialised; iii) the implications of having over 8 years of production history from Zone 9; iv) that the moment of truth for Frontera after decades of investment would occur in 2018 and 2019; v) the improving sector backdrop. So in short, we are not surprised that Frontera is one of very few oil companies listed on AIM that has entered discussions with two major oil companies, because the potential of its assets is consistent with what a globally leading oil company would look for to generate meaningful growth, in our opinion. We recognise that the ongoing tes