Last checked at 16 Jun 2011 07:00
Cadogan Petroleum plc ("Cadogan" or "the Company") AGM STATEMENT
At the Annual General Meeting scheduled for 2pm on Thursday 16 June Simon Duffy, Chairman, will update shareholders as follows:
"Since the announcement of the anticipated investment in two of our east Ukraine assets by ENI S.p.A, ("Eni"), the major integrated Italian energy company, good progress has been made in fulfilling the conditions precedent for completion of the transaction. The Ukraine Anti Monopoly Commission has given approval for the transaction to proceed and the internal restructuring necessary has been largely completed. In addition a circular has been issued to shareholders convening a General Meeting, which will follow the AGM later today, at which the Board is seeking approval of the transaction. This transaction should complete in early July. In line with our agreement, Eni has become progressively more involved in line with the increase in operational activity and we are in the process of seconding Eni personnel into our organisation.
Good progress has been made on the ground on our joint projects. At our Pokrovska asset, a drilling and services contract has been awarded to Saipem S.p.A to deepen the Pokrovska - 1 well, which was suspended in December 2010. Site preparation is complete, with drilling operations scheduled to start in July. It is anticipated that the drilling and preliminary testing programme will be completed by the end of Q3 2011, with an extended testing programme to follow. After this well, the rig will move to the Pokrovska - 2 location to sidetrack the existing well or to drill a new well. Our Zagoranska asset is also included in the Eni agreement and a programme has commenced to workover several of the recently acquired wells on this field. A suitable rig has been identified and site preparations on Zagoranska -1 location are well advanced and rig operations are scheduled to start in July.
Cadogan and Eni are also working together to identify other upstream opportunities in Ukraine and to facilitate this, we recently entered into a co-operation agreement.
With regard to our other six assets, on our Pirkovska asset in east Ukraine a workover is planned later this year on the Pirkovska - 1 well. In west Ukraine, we also have several work programmes underway, for example on Bitlyanska, the new 2D seismic data is being interpreted and integrated with existing data to develop a future work plan and farm out campaign for this asset. On our Monastreyska licence we are developing a workover over and frac programme for the Blazhiv - 1 oil well and are considering the acquisition of further wells on this minor field. Gas production continues on our Debeslavetska and Cheremkivska licences, where we are also planning to acquire a 2D seismic programme in 2011. Finally on our Slobodo Rungurska asset we are seeking an extension to the licence to enable the drilling of a deeper prospect below the abandoned shallow field that has produced oil since the 1780's - one of the world's oldest oilfields.
Negotiations with Global Process System continue over rescheduling the delayed $10 million payment due to the Company under a settlement agreement. The Company is also reviewing other possible arrangements to recover the cash value of the plant that it owns in 2011.
In summary the Company has an extremely active period ahead with work programmes committed across the scope of our licences. I have every confidence that the progress made in the past year, coupled with the transaction with Eni, will prove transformational in the fortunes of the Company."
Enquiries
Cadogan Petroleum plc +44 20 7487 8301 Ian Baron, Chief Executive Officer Gordon Stein, Chief Financial Officer Stefan Bort, Company Secretary Bankside Simon Rothschild +44 20 7367 8888 Matrix Robin Henshall +44 20 3206 7000 James Pope
vendor