Ascent Resources Regulatory News (AST)

30 Aug 2005 07:00

Ascent Resources PLC30 August 2005 Ascent Resources Plc / Epic: AST / Index: AIM / Sector: Oil and Gas 30 August 2005 Ascent Resources Plc ("Ascent" or "the Company") Signs MoU with MOL to Develop Hungarian Gas Reserves Ascent Resources plc, the AIM quoted oil and gas exploration and productioncompany, has signed a memorandum of understanding ("MoU") to develop gas assetsin Hungary, through its 90% owned Hungarian Joint Venture Petro Hungaria kft,with Hungarian oil and gas company MOL. Under the terms of the MoU, Petro Hungaria will provide funding for thedevelopment and redevelopment of gas reserves in Hungary, primarily through theapplication of state-of-the-art stimulation techniques. The incrementalproduction resulting from this work will be divided equally between the twocompanies. A joint steering committee with three experts from each company willselect suitable reservoirs for joint exploitation. This work has alreadycommenced. Ascent's Managing Director Jeremy Eng commented: "The opportunity to work withMOL is very welcome and this project, with the objective of developingunexploited gas reserves in Hungary, is a major step forward for Petro Hungaria.Now, in addition to the gas exploration permits in the east of the countrywhere Petro Hungaria will be shooting about 270km of seismic starting nextmonth, the presence and activities of the Company will continue to grow andalready another initiative is under review. "Hungary has a long history of both oil and gas production. The firstcommercially exploited oilfield was discovered in 1937 and the country nowproduces about a third of its oil and around a quarter of its natural gas needs.MOL was made the national oil company in 1991 and then privatized in 1994.Recently, the EU stepped in to prevent the sale of the gas distribution andmarketing division to E-ON of Germany over monopoly fears. However in each oftheir core activities in Hungary, MOL is the market leader, accounting for themajority of the nation's oil and gas production, refining capacity and reserves." * * ENDS * * Issued on behalf of Ascent Resources Plc by St Brides Media & Finance Ltd, 46Bedford Row, London, WC1R 4LR. Contacts: Jeremy Eng Ascent Resources Plc Tel: 020 7251 4905 Hugo de Salis St Brides Media & Finance Ltd Tel: 020 7242 4477 Notes: Ascent Resources Plc is an AIM quoted oil and gas company with a primary focusin Europe. Since being founded in November 2004, Ascent has assembled aportfolio of exploration assets that include majority interests in eightexploration permits. Applications for a further two are in progress. Ascentconsiders the full spectrum of projects covering exploration, early stagedevelopment and production. The Company has an experienced technical team withstrong industry contacts and a proven track record. They have implemented astructured two phase development strategy: Phase 1 is to develop the core ofEuropean projects; while Phase 2 is to acquire a lesser number of larger scaleprojects across a wider geographical range. The Company now has a 90% interestsin projects in Hungary (gas), Switzerland (gas & oil), and Holland (gas), a 100%interest in an Italian gas exploration project and a 70% interest in Italian oilexploration as well as the royalty interest in Gabon. The balance of oil andgas assets and the geographical spread of projects mainly in net energyimporting countries are designed to mitigate the risk in commodity pricefluctuation and changes in global energy politics. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange