New broker target of 17.1p26 Aug 2018 13:19
The UK Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) has awarded United a 95% interest in UKCS Licence P2366 in the Central North Sea which contains blocks 15/18d and 15/19b. These licences contain multiple hydrocarbon targets. However, of primary interest is the Crown oil discovery which could contain recoverable reserves of up to 16.0 mmbbls of oil. The licence term for P2366 commences on 1 October 2018 and the company is now poised to commence discussions with potential farm-in partners in order to expedite the future development of the asset.
These blocks, which cover an area of approximately 13.6 km2, contain several interesting oil and gas targets of which the most exciting is the Palaeocene Crown oil discovery on Block15/19b. The Crown discovery was made by well 15/19-9 drilled by ConocoPhillips in 1998 and United’s internal estimates suggest a range of recoverable volumes for Crown of 4-16 mmbbls with a mid-case estimate of approximately 9.0 mmbbls. United’s blocks are located close to the Piper, MaCulloch and Dumbarton/Donan oil fields.
We understand that there were a number of competing bids for the acreage. However, United was awarded the blocks on the basis of a work programme focused on seismic reprocessing in order to reduce the uncertainty of the estimated oil volumes and also to optimise the location of a future development well. We estimate that the initial costs for this work will be modest for United and unlikely to exceed £150,000.
We believe that Crown would have been considered too small for development upon discovery However, with significant advances in technology since 1998, we believe that Crown could be suitable for a single horizontal well development and a subsea completion tied back to an existing platform, the closest of which is located less than 12km away.
With the confirmation of the award of the licence to United, it is possible to ascribe a preliminary valuation to the Crown discovery. Using a conservative oil price assumption of $65/bbl over the life of a 9.0 mmbbls development as described above, we arrive at net valuation of $80.9m for United’s 95% interest. We expect that United will ultimately hold a smaller equity interest which could still be subject to a funding requirement in the event of a partial carry. However, for the purposes of illustrative value we have assumed that United will retain a 20% carried interest which represents 3.7p per share on a fully diluted basis; a very sizable asset to the company.
In our previous note dated 24 May 2018, we highlighted the inclusion of an initial indicative valuation for United’s 20% interest in the Walton-Morant licence in Jamaica within our core valuation. We note that the operator Tullow has now delivered fast track 3D seismic data following the 2,250 km2 survey over the licence and the high graded Colibri exploration target (200 mmbbls+) is clearly identified on the dataset.
This survey is the first to be acquired in Jamaica an