Lansdowne Oil Regulatory News (LOGP)

16 Apr 2008 07:00

Lansdowne Oil & Gas plc16 April 2008 16 April 2008 Lansdowne Oil & Gas plc ("Lansdowne" or the "Company") Exploration Licence Award and Acreage Extension Lansdowne Oil & Gas plc, the Dublin-based exploration company, is pleased toannounce that its recently acquired wholly-owned subsidiary Milesian Oil & GasLimited ("Milesian") has been awarded a new exploration licence in the NorthCeltic Sea basin, off the south coast of Ireland. Standard Exploration Licence 5/08 is a successor authorisation to Milesian'spreviously held Licensing Option (05/2) and covers an area of 449 sq kms overparts of blocks 47/25, 48/21, and 48/22. The blocks are located 30 kms from thecoastline, in water depths of approximately 100 metres. The Norwegian based company, Wavefield Inseis ASA, has been contracted to carryout a 2D seismic survey of approximately 485 kms over the Amergin and Eremonstructures that have been mapped from existing seismic data. Amergin has beenindependently verified as having best case potentially recoverable prospectiveresources of 63 million barrels of oil equivalent ("MMBOE"). The M/V Malene Ostervold seismic vessel is expected to arrive in Irish watersand to commence operations on behalf of Milesian at the end of this month. Standard Exploration Licence 5/08 is valid for a period of six years (in twothree year phases) during which Milesian is required to drill an explorationwell and to complete the acquisition of 300 kms of new seismic data within thefirst three year phase. The proposed acquisition of new seismic data will fulfilthe latter obligation. Under the terms of the licence, on 31 March 2011 Milesianis required to surrender 50 per cent. of the licence area. Lansdowne has also been awarded an extension to the area of Exploration Licence4/07 (Midleton / East Kinsale) to take in part of Block 49/13, held previouslyby Milesian under Licensing Option 05/1. The area has been extended to encompassa fault block lead identified at Jurassic level and this will be evaluatedfurther in conjunction with the prospects already identified on Midleton / EastKinsale at the Cretaceous level. The new area of Licence 4/07 is 542 sq kmscompared with the previous area of 494 sq kms. Emmet Brown, Business Development Director of Lansdowne, commented: "Lansdowne now has a balanced portfolio of near-term exploration and appraisalgas satellite prospects along with these large, oil prospective targets. We aredelighted with this award and the extension and look forward to quicklycompleting the seismic programme, the results of which should underpin thepotential of this new licence and lead to exploratory drilling on one or both ofthe prospects. We are currently talking with potential farm-in partners in thisregard." Enquiries: Lansdowne Oil & Gas plcStephen Boldy, CEO Tel: +353 1 637 3934Emmet Brown, Business Development Director Tel: +353 1 637 3934John East & Partners LimitedDavid Worlidge Tel: 020 7628 2200 Notes to Editors: Lansdowne Oil & Gas plc is an independent oil and gas exploration company listedon the AIM market in London with its operations focused on the Irish offshoreNorth Celtic Sea basin. Its operating headquarters is in Dublin. The Company was founded in December 2005 and admitted to AIM in April 2006having acquired from Ramco Energy plc its portfolio of Irish exploration andappraisal assets that flank the Kinsale Head gas field and its infrastructure.The Company recently significantly expanded its North Celtic Sea portfoliothrough the acquisition of Milesian Oil & Gas Limited in December 2007 with itsidentified exploration prospects for Jurassic oil and gas. Following the acquisition and interpretation of this new seismic furtherconsideration may become payable to the Milesian vendor shareholders. An updated Independent Technical Report relating to Milesian's acreage will becommissioned following the conclusion of the seismic programme. If that reportconfirms best case potentially recoverable prospective resources of at least 63MMBOE then a further 2,333,419 new shares in Lansdowne will be issued to theMilesian vendor shareholders. Additionally for each 1 MMBOE of best case potentially recoverable prospectiveresources above 63 MMBOE, but capped at a total of 155 MMBOE a further 62,790new Lansdowne shares will be issued to the Milesian vendor shareholders.Therefore a maximum of 8,110,099 new Lansdowne shares may become issuable wherethe best case potentially recoverable prospective resources reach 155 MMBOE. Further information on Lansdowne is available at Lansdowne's website atwww.lansdowneoilandgas.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange