LBE.L Regulatory News (LBE)

3 March 2023

Longboat Energy plc

("Longboat Energy", "Longboat" or the "Company")

PL 939 Licence Update - Egyptian Vulture

Longboat Energy, the emerging full-cycle E&P company, provides an update on the status of the PL 939 licence which contains the Egyptian Vulture oil discovery.

In October 2021, Longboat announced the Egyptian Vulture light oil discovery (Longboat 15%) close to infrastructure on the Halten Terrace in the Norwegian Sea. The discovery is visible on seismic as a large amplitude anomaly and intensive technical studies have been undertaken to de-risk the discovery with particular focus on seismic interpretation and distribution of areas with good reservoir. As part of this work, ERCE provided an independent assessment of the discovery in a Competent Person Report commissioned by Longboat, which has confirmed the 1C-3C size of the discovery at gross 4-68 mmboe.

For an appraisal well on Egyptian Vulture to be successful, it would need to encounter better reservoir quality than that penetrated by the discovery well. The Joint Venture participants, following extensive technical work, have been unable to form an aligned view regarding an appraisal well and will not be committing to a licence extension as required on 2 March 2023. Therefore the licence is being relinquished.

However, Longboat is looking to form a new group to take the asset forward and rather than take over the existing licence, which would involve escalating license fees, will seek to re-apply for the acreage in the forthcoming licence round with awards due in January 2024.

Helge Hammer, Chief Executive of Longboat, commented: 

"The Egyptian Vulture discovery has significant upside and needs an aligned partnership to be efficiently appraised and progressed to a potential development project. We look forward to creating a new group to take this high-potential asset forward." 

The information contained within this announcement is considered to be inside information prior to its release.

Ends

Background

Longboat Energy was established at the end of 2019 to create a full-cycle E&P company through value accretive M&A and near-field exploration. Since June 2021, Longboat has entered a series of four transactions to acquire interests in a portfolio of nine, gas-weighted exploration wells drilling on the Norwegian Continental Shelf close to existing infrastructure. To date, eight of these wells have been drilled resulting in five hydrocarbon discoveries (Egyptian Vulture, Mugnetind, Rødhette, Kveikje and Oswig), representing a technical 63% success rate.

In February 2023, Longboat entered Malaysia through the award of a Production Sharing Contract for Block 2A, offshore Sarawak. Block 2A covers approx. 12,000km2 and is located in water depths of between 100-1,400 metres where a number of large prospects across multiple plays have been identified with significant volume potential representing multiple trillions of cubic feet of gas.

Longboat's activities remain focused on creating a portfolio with a clear low-cost route to monetisation and low-carbon drilling and development opportunities, well aligned to Longboat's ESG targets which includes a corporate 'Net Zero' on a Scope 1 and 2 basis by 2050.

Standard

Estimates of reserves and resources have been prepared in accordance with the June 2018 Petroleum Resources Management System ("PRMS") as the standard for classification and reporting with an effective date of 31 December 2020.

Review by Qualified Person

The technical information in this release has been reviewed by Hilde Salthe, Managing Director Norge, who is a qualified person for the purposes of the AIM Guidance Note for Mining, Oil and Gas Companies. Ms Salthe is a petroleum geologist with more than 20 years' experience in the oil and gas industry. Ms Salthe has a master's degree from Faculty of Applied Earth Sciences at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim.

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