Cabot Energy Regulatory News (CAB)

Embargoed for release: 0700 on 26th June 2013 Northern Petroleum Plc ("Northern" or "the Company") AGM Statement Northern, the independent oil company, announces that at the Annual GeneralMeeting held today the Chairman of the Board, Richard Latham, will make thefollowing statement: "Your Company is looking forward with excitement to the positive changes anddevelopments that have been started and will benefit the Company over the next2 to 3 years. "Over the last half year the efforts of realignment of the Company, started in2012, have become more visible to the Company's Shareholders. The Company hasmade a number of moves, in line with our well developed strategy to improve thegrowth of our business and achieve a better share price performance. This iscurrently dominated by a reaction to the results of the wildcat explorationwells in French Guiana and the increase in understanding of the Netherlandsproducing fields that has lead to a reserves reduction. As part of therealignment and as stated previously the Company is going through a period ofmanaged change at Board level, to be concluded within the second half of 2013. "The Company continues to fund the necessary work required to mature high riskhigh reward prospects through owned production or asset trades. It remains astrategic requirement that entry cost into new projects is low and that theprojects have the opportunity for material upside. A good example of theapplication of these two strategic principles is the entry into Alberta,Canada. "The intention of the Albertan project is to develop production from theredevelopment of existing fields to provide funding for the work required toturn higher risk exploration prospects into good drill opportunities. Theresidual potential risk of this redevelopment project is mitigated by a verylow entry cost and a proof of concept phase to be undertaken during the summerof 2013. A material upside is given by the large amount of oil originally inplace, where recovery to date has been low and enhanced oil recovery techniqueshave not been employed. With the leases acquired to date, the Company hasaccess to remaining oil in place of approximately 45 million barrels. This canbe rapidly developed over the next two winters in order to establish a goodlevel of cash flow from the assets. "The speed with which production can be brought on and increased is a keyelement in identifying the three redevelopment opportunities evaluated, ofwhich Canada was selected as the best. This will be particularly importantshould the Netherlands production be sold. The sales process is continuing withnegotiations at a key point. "Another key element of the Company strategy is to give shareholders exposureto high risk high reward opportunities each year. To do this whilst ensuringthat entry into new projects remains low cost requires the Company to be aheadof the competition and enter licences or applications at an early stage. Anexample of this is the entry into South Australia. "The Company has taken two years to determine the opportunities available inthe area, gain an understanding of the Australian oil and gas industry and beawarded our first licence. During this period, there has been a large change inthe understanding of unconventional plays around the world and notablyAustralia has emerged as an important new area for this. Evidence of this isclear, with major companies recently taking key shale play stakes in thecountry. As a result of the licence round application made by the Company,shareholders now have exposure to a very prospective area onshore in SouthAustralia. Again, the entry cost to this has been managed through a stagedapproach to the commitment requirements, with the Company initially working toreprocess and interpret existing 2D seismic and determine the optimum locationfor a 3D seismic survey in the second year of the licence. "As the Company develops its existing assets, there is a strategic financialrequirement to ensure that Shareholders are not exposed to high capital costs.In Italy during 2012, subsurface work conducted on the Cygnus prospect, inconjunction with additional data from the Aquila Field being made public,developed a possible combined resource of recoverable oil close to a billionbarrels, 80% of which is within Northern's permit. Acquisition of 3D seismic isrequired to further delineate the Cygnus prospect and to allow this the Companyis running a farm out process to reduce the capital exposure. Negotiations arecontinuing, whilst in parallel, the Company is tracking the approval of the 3Dseismic environmental impact assessment within the Italian ministries. "Exploration in French Guiana provides a good example of where the Company hasentered a licence at an early, low cost stage. The Company first gained itsshare in the licence in 2004, with the first well drilled in 2011. Now, thefour well exploration programme being conducted as a follow up to the Zaedyusdiscovery is in progress with the third well approaching the interesting phase.The Company remains very excited about the potential of French Guiana and islooking forward to seeing the results of the current well. "To summarise, over the last year, the Company has been actively working to itsstrategy in order to be in a good position for future growth. Much of this workneeds to remain commercially confidential to ensure that the best opportunitiesare realised. Some of the results of this work are now becoming evident to theShareholder, however there are more interesting and significant opportunitiesthat continue to be progressed. "I am confident that with the managed changes happening to both the asset baseand the Company's management, the Company will be in an extremely good positionover the next months and years to grow and return the share price to the levelexpected by the Shareholders." For further information please contact: Northern Petroleum Plc Tel: +44 (0)20 7469 2900Richard Latham, ChairmanDerek Musgrove, Managing Director Westhouse Securities (Nomad and Broker) Tel: +44 (0)20 7601 6100Richard Baty - Corporate FinanceIan Napier - Corporate Broking FTI Consulting Tel: +44 (0)20 7831 3113Billy Clegg Bishopsgate Communications Tel: +44(0)20 7562 3350Nick Rome Notes to Editors: Northern is a full cycle oil and gas company currently holding numerouslicences in a number of low risk areas and is continuing with its strategy ofadding and securing value for shareholders as it engages with projects at allstages of the E&P value chain.