Ascent Resources Regulatory News (AST)

Chairman and CEO's statement

The first half of the year (the "Period" or "H1 2023") has seen the Company continue to take strides as it defends its investment and working interests in Slovenia. The Company has successfully resolved a long-standing dispute, which commenced in 2019, with its joint venture ("JV") service provider, Petrol Geo, at a circa 30% discount to the amounts claimed to be owed. As well as successfully restructuring the costs of the continuing service provider contract at a discount of approximately 55% to the prior amounts being charged. The Company successfully resolved part of its disputes with its JV partner, Geoenergo, relating to hydrocarbon production proceeds owed to the Company pursuant to the JV contract (the "RJOA"), resulting in the Group successfully recognising €1,724,689 in hydrocarbon proceeds from the PG-10 and PG-11A wells produced in the period January 2022 through to February 2023. The Company continues to pursue its arbitration claim against Geoenergo in relation to the parties' different interpretations of the RJOA relating to the distribution of hydrocarbon proceeds produced above the contractual baseline production profile whilst Ascent is in a preferential recovery position. The arbitration hearing took place in June 2023 and the Company is awaiting its outcome.

During the Period, the Tribunal was constituted for the Company's Energy Charter Treaty ("ECT") damages claim against the Republic of Slovenia. Accordingly, the Company has been working with its legal representatives, Enyo Law LLP, to prepare its ECT memorial, which was submitted post the Period under review. As part of the work to finalise the memorial, independent technical oil & gas as well as financial damage quantum experts were commissioned to provide their analysis on the Company's claim and estimated an updated claim damages number of €656.5 million. It should be cautioned that in the event the Company is successful in its claim any amount actually received by the Company may be significantly lower.

Gas production at the Petisovci project in Slovenia has continued through the Period with 645,140 scm produced by the PG-10 and PG-11A wells. However, the European gas market has softened through the Period. The JV Partner (who is also the concession holder) submitted a concession extension application ahead of the deadline, which was then superseded by law changes in Slovenia which give mining right owners with concessions expiring in the next 18 months an automatic 30-month extension to their current concession expiry date (as a result of the administrative backlog resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic), subject to the concession holders filing a request within 30 days. The JV Partner filed the necessary application to receive the 30-month extension ahead of the deadline. Accordingly, the Company expects the concession expiry date to be in May 2026.

The Company is seeking to execute on its first ESG Metals deal in the second half of the year. Our vision remains, by the end of 2023, to have finalised this transformation of Ascent such that the Company has both sustainable cash flow generation from its operations and compelling upside exposure to both near term €3+ million partner arbitration claim as well as medium term €656.5 million ECT damages claim against the Republic of Slovenia (it should be cautioned that in the event the Company is successful in its claim any amount actually received by the Company may be significantly lower than the amount sought), underpinned by a new ESG compatible metals strategy in an exciting, growth focused, part of the world.

We thank our shareholders for their support and look forward to achieving success together.

Slovenia Energy Charter Treaty Arbitration Claim

In September 2022 Ascent Resources Plc and its wholly owned subsidiary, Ascent Slovenia Limited, (together the "Claimants") registered an Energy Charter Treaty ("ECT") damages claim against the Republic of Slovenia relating to a number of certain actions taken by Slovenia and its administrative functions, against the Claimants, which culminated in the expropriation of the Claimant's investments in Slovenia by sudden changes to the country's mining legislation, implemented in May 2022, which prohibit the use of stimulation as a method to explore for or produce hydrocarbons. Given that the Petišovci project is a tight gas development which requires the use of stimulation to produce the tight gas, these actions have expropriated the full investment value of the Claimants investments in country, which are in breach of the duties owned by Slovenia to the Claimants as protected investors.

During the Period the Claimants and Enyo Law LLP (the Company's appointed specialist litigation and arbitration lawyers) have been working alongside independent experts in the fields of geology and oil and gas developments, as well as specialist independent quantum analysis experts to prepare the memorial which sets out the Claimants position, merits and jurisdiction for the claim. This lengthy document was successfully completed and filed in July 2023, post the Period-end, and estimated a revised claim damages amount of €656.5 million.

The Claimants arbitration dispute with the Republic of Slovenia is administered by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes ("ICSID"). The request for arbitration follows the Notices of Dispute filed by Ascent Resources Plc and Ascent Slovenia Ltd on 23 July 2020 and 5 May 2022 respectively in which Slovenia was formally notified of the existence of a dispute under the ECT. The Request for Arbitration ("Request") was submitted pursuant to Article 26 of the ECT and was successfully registered with ICSID under the ECT on 1 September 2022. The Company appointed Mr Klaus Reichert (German/Irish) as its arbitrator in November 2022. In December 2022, Slovenia appointed Ms Brigitte Stern, a French professor. During the Period, Dr Raed Fathallah (Canadian, French, Lebanese) was appointed as president arbitrator and, accordingly, on 7 March 2023, the Tribunal was constituted in accordance with Article 37(2)(a) of the ICSID Convention. Following a first procedural session in April 2023, the case continued to progress through the arbitration process. It should be cautioned that in the event the Company is successful in its claim any amount actually received by the Company may be significantly lower than the amount sought.

The Company remains amenable to discussing settlement with the Republic of Slovenia following its review of the matter or otherwise pursuing its significant damages claim through to a binding result for the Claimants and their stakeholders.

Slovenia Operations Update

The PG-10 and PG-11A wells continue to produce gas with a 1H monthly average production of 107,000 SCM/month which is currently being sold to local industrial buyers via the low-pressure pipeline. Through the Period, the Company achieved success in its dispute mediation process with the JV service provider, Petrol Geo, in regards to their claim for payment of €2,083,491 (plus interest and costs) relating to costs and invoices which Ascent has been rejecting on the basis of a significant change in circumstances. The Company successfully agreed to resolve the dispute by agreeing a full and final payment of €1,436,000 to settle all claimed amounts, representing a discount of approximately 30% to the amount being claimed. Additionally, the Company successfully renegotiated the continuing service provider contract to reduce the fixed service charge down from €44,000 per month to the higher of i) €20,000 a month (a discount of circa 55% to the amounts previously agreed); or ii) 35% of Ascent's entitlement to proceeds from the PG-10 and PG-11A wells. This structure seeks to mitigate the losses made by the project. In tandem with this resolution to the claim against the JV, the Company was also successful in achieving a partial resolution to its Slovenia domestic arbitration dispute process against Geoenergo which was instigated in December 2022, with an agreement during the period under review that saw Ascent recognise payment of €1,724,689 for hydrocarbons sales from the PG-10 and PG-11A wells for the period January 2022 through to February 2023. Following settlement of the amounts agreed to be paid to Petrol Geo, the Company successfully received net proceeds of €288,689 in cash. However, the arbitration process continues with the Company seeking an answer to the JV partners different interpretations of the RJOA relating to the distribution of the economics of hydrocarbon production proceeds generated above the RJOA contractual baseline production profile from all the wells on the concession area (as opposed to just PG-10 and PG-11A). The Company is seeking entitlement to 90% of the proceeds from this delta whilst it is in a preferential cost recovery position (i.e. until it has earned/received its investment of €50+ million back). The hearing was held in June 2023 and the result is expected in due course. The Company currently estimates the amount it is entitled to, limited by the three-year statutory deadline, could be in excess of €3 million.

During the Period, the JV partner and concession holder, Geoenergo, filed an application to extend the term of the concession which was due to expire in November 2023. This application was then superseded by law changes implemented in Slovenia which have afforded mineral right owners with concessions due to expire in the next 18 months with the option of an automatic 30-month extension, designed to ease the administrative backlog in the ministry as a result of COVID-19 pandemic. The Company was notified by Geoenergo that the requisite request for the 30-month extension was submitted ahead of the deadline. The Company now expects the concession expiry date will be 28 May 2026.

ESG Metals Strategy

The Company remains very focused on executing on its new ESG Metals growth strategy with an initial focus on Latin America, where the Company has selected Peru and Chile as ideal candidates to execute our growth strategy. Peru is widely recognised as one of the largest and most diversified mineral producers with some of the most extensive reserves in the world with mining the most important sector in the Peruvian economy (some 10% of national GDP). Peru is currently the world's second largest Copper, Silver and Zinc producer and Latin America's largest Gold, Zinc, Tin and Lead producer. Peru's Long-Term Credit Rating is rated as BBB by most agencies, which is amongst the strongest in the region. The country also benefits from a long history of mining, a robust mining legal framework and a significant pool of local expertise. Similarly, a lot of these traits are shared by neighbouring Chile, which is the world's largest Copper producer and has a long history or mining and mineral processing giving rise to large accumulations of surface stockpiled materials consistent with the Company's ESG Metals strategy.

The Company sees significant opportunity for attractive entry points in mining following the global pandemic which has triggered international capital flight and significant capital constraints for small-scale miners. The Company therefore initially expects to focus its attention on small-scale operations (up to 350 tpd), which the Company considers affordable, of an efficient operational and commercial scale and which have multiple local operating and permitting benefits. The Company is actively developing a number of potential transactions in the gold tailing re-processing and artisanal gold ore processing theme, however given the political disruption in Peru towards the end of 2022 and beginning of 2023, the Company expects its first transaction in ESG Metals may be in a neighbouring territory, with the expectation that a new country entry to Peru focused on precious metals would still materialise in the Company's near future.

Corporate

In February 2023, the Company signed strategic collaboration agreements with Beryl International Pty, a South African based diversified investment Company, who were seeking to make a strategic investment of £1 million in the Company at a premium to the prevailing market share price, alongside appointing a new non-executive director to the Board. However, after the announcement of the proposed transaction, South Africa was added to the Financial Action Task Force grey list which resulted in significant delays for Beryl to complete the capitalisation of their new international subsidiary set up for the purpose of the proposed investment. Accordingly, after extending the long stop date and Beryl's second failure to complete settlement of its obligations, the Company terminated the proposed transaction. In April 2023 the Company successfully raised £0.4 million in new equity proceeds at a price of 3 pence per new share, being the spot price at the close on the preceding day ahead of announcement. Each new share was also issued with one new warrant exercisable at 5 pence per new share at any time in the next two years.

In June 2023 the Company announced an intention to bid for Amur Minerals Plc, having been in discussions with the Amur board around a concept of merging their cash resource post payment of their special dividend with Ascent's business development inventory in Latin America, to combine and execute on a joint strategy focused on metals processing and reprocessing businesses which expose shareholders to precious and battery metals and have a pathway toward cashflows within 6 months to three years. However, post the Period-end, discussion were terminated.

Outlook

The Company remains focused on preserving value and defending its investments and working interests in Slovenia. Shareholders are exposed to a near term domestic arbitration result relating to the Company's claims to an estimated €3+ million in additional revenue from all the wells in the concession area, in addition to the PG-10 and PG-11A revenues received as a result of the partial resolution of the partner dispute. During the Period, the Tribunal was constituted for the Company's ECT damages claim against Slovenia and post the Period-end the Company filed its ECT claim memorial for an upgraded €656.5 million, independently estimated, damages claim (It should be cautioned that in the event the Company is successful in its claim any amount actually received by the Company may be significantly lower than the amount sought). Following clarity on the near-term live items the Company expects to be well positioned to execute on its maiden ESG Metals deal in Latin America.

James Parsons Andrew Dennan

Executive Chairman Chief Executive Officer

27 September 2023 27 September 2023

CEO's report

Financial performance

Revenue for H1 2023 was £1.36m (H1 2022: nil and FY22: £581,000). In April 2023 the Company successfully resolved part of its disputes with its JV partner, Geoenergo, relating to hydrocarbon production proceeds owed to the Company from the PG-10 and PG-11A wells for the period January 2022 through to February 2023. Furthermore, at the same time the Company fully resolved all outstanding claims with the JV service provider, Petrol Geo, over all disputed and rejected invoices claimed since 2019 to February 2023 resulting in cost of sales for H1 2023 of £456,000 (H1 2022: nil and FY22 £504,000).

The closing cash balance at 30 June 2023 was £242,000 (H1 2022: £174,000 and FY22: £325,000). During the Period the Company agreed invoices and received payment for historic revenues from the PG-10 and PG-11A wells for the period of January 2022 through to February 2023. Accordingly, the Company expects to recognise historic production revenues as well as associated production costs in its next annual accounts. During the Period the Company also began receiving monthly revenues from continuing production from the PG-10 and PG-11A wells as well as paying monthly production costs.

During the Period the Company raised £400,000 before costs in an equity placing in April 2023. There was a cash outflow from operations of £455,000 and an inflow of £371,000 from financing, resulting in net cash outflow of £83,000.

Operational performance

Total production for the Period was 645.10 thousand cubic metres of gas and 22,200 litres of condensate.

Gas sales to INA remain suspended as wellhead pressure is below the export pipeline pressure, which is not expected to be remedied following the Slovenian ban which includes the prohibition of low volume hydraulic stimulation. The Company produced gas in the year to date which was sold locally to an industrial buyer through a low-pressure pipeline. In April 2023, the Company agreed invoices and began receiving payment for historic revenues from the PG-10 and PG-11A wells for the period of January 2022 through to February 2023 and as such, the Company has recognised historic and 2023 production revenues as well as associated production costs.

Consolidated Income Statement

for the Period ended 30 June 2023

Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income

for the Period ended 30 June 2023

Consolidated Statement of Financial Position

As at 30 June 2023