Transformational deal...21 Apr 2021 09:28
Those were the words of Brian when we bought the Egypt 22%
That could be a massive understatement!
As previously announced, the consideration for the Rockhopper Acquisition is US$16 million (approximately GBP12.2 million) which is being funded by:
-- the issue of 114,503,817 Consideration Shares at 3 pence to Rockhopper PLC,
-- a pre-payment financing structure of up to US$8 million provided by BP ('the BP Facility')
-- the Placing of 150,616,669 Placing Shares at 3 pence per share with certain existing and new investors
As the original Acquisition Agreement and BP Facility contained backstop dates of 22 January 2020 and the Placing Agreements contained a 31 January 2020 backstop date, the Company, Rockhopper, BP and United's Brokers (Cenkos and Optiva) have extended the backstop dates on all of these agreements until the end of February 2020, which the Company expects will provide sufficient time for approval of the Deed of Assignment and completion of the Acquisition. In the meantime, the date for the admission of the Enlarged Ordinary Share Capital of United, comprising 619,153,969 Ordinary Shares, to trading on AIM has been deferred, and Admission is expected to take place during the middle of February 2020, ('the Admission date').
Brian Larkin CEO, United Oil and Gas PLC: "As the test results to date on the ASH-2 well demonstrate, Abu Sennan is a producing asset with considerable upside potential. At the effective date of the Acquisition (1st January 2019), production attributable to Rockhopper's 22% interest in Abu Sennan was c. 800 boepd. Today it stands at c.1,760 boepd. While the interpretation of the data is continuing, it is clear that the intersected reservoirs have excellent production capacity. With this in mind, we are looking forward to completing this transformational Acquisition and working with our soon-to-be joint venture partners to optimise the field development plan for Abu Sennan. This includes a multi-well infill drill programme that is expected to commence shortly with the El Salmiya 5 well.
"I would like to thank our existing shareholders, the incoming investors and BP who continue to support what will be a transformational deal for our company. Together with receipt of environmental approval for the development of the Selva Gas field in Italy and the extension of the Tullow-operated Production Sharing Agreement on the Walton Morant Licence offshore Jamaica, 2020 has got off to an excellent start. I look forward to providing further updates on our progress in the weeks and months ahead. "