Chairman’s Report14 Oct 2024 13:41
Apotheki: CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
Dear fellow shareholders,
I am pleased to present the following statement in support of the annual results of Beacon Energy plc (the "Company") for the year ended 31 December 2023.
During the year and subsequent period, the Board has worked tirelessly to deliver the Company's strategy which is to pursue the acquisition of value enhancing opportunities to develop and grow a self-funding upstream oil & gas company.
In April 2023, the Company was pleased to complete the acquisition of Rhein Petroleum GmbH ("Rhein Petroleum"), together with a £6 million fundraise and simultaneous readmission to AIM following a period of suspension associated with the reverse take-over (the "Transaction"). Rhein Petroleum is an established full cycle E&P company with a portfolio of largely operated production, development, appraisal and exploration assets located onshore Germany. This acquisition represented a transformational transaction for shareholders, which was fully aligned with Beacon Energy's growth strategy to focus on assets with proven resources and therefore tangible value.
Immediately upon completion of the Transaction, the Company secured a drilling rig to drill the Schwarzbach-2 development well on the Erfelden field. Drilling operations commenced on 19 June 2023. Notwithstanding operational issues encountered during drilling, the Schwarzbach-2(2.) ("SCHB-2(2.)") well reached total drill depth of 2,255m metres (1,717 metres True Vertical Depth) on 13 August 2023 with electric wireline well logging completed shortly thereafter.
The wireline logs obtained confirmed that the SCHB-2(2.) well encountered a 34-metre gross interval containing 28 metres of oil-bearing net reservoirs in the Pechelbronner-Schichten ("PBS") sandstones within the Stockstadt Mitte segment of the Erfelden field. These oil-bearing reservoirs were encountered approximately 25 metres higher and 10 metres thicker than prognosis, with porosities averaging 18% in the Lower PBS and 21% in the Upper PBS, with no water-bearing sands in the 42m hydrocarbon column.
As a result of the encouraging electronic log results, the Company completed an over-subscribed £4.3 million fundraise in September 2023 and subsequently, on 13 November 2023, the Company updated its assessment of potential reserves in the central part of the Erfelden field to 7.2 mmbbls (Best Estimate Case), with range of 4.7 to 10.2 mmbbls (Low Case to High Case). For comparison, the Competent Person's Report for the Erfelden field, published at the time of the Transaction, outlined a 2P reserve of 3.8 mmbbls.
Following installation of a rod pump, production from the well stabilised at a disappointing 40 barrels of oil per day ("bopd") - materially below expectations given the results of the electronic logs. The low production rate indicated that the reservoir near the wellbore had been invaded with drilling fluids, restricting flow rates.
In January 2024, the Company und