MXP.L Regulatory News (MXP)

26 Oct 2005 07:23

Max Petroleum PLC 26 October 2005 MAX PETROLEUM PLC ADMISSION OF ORDINARY SHARES TO THE ALTERNATIVE INVESTMENT MARKET The Board of Max Petroleum PLC ('Max' or 'the Company'), an oil and gas exploration and production company with an initial focus in the Republic of Kazakhstan, announces that the Company's Ordinary Shares of 0.01p each ('Shares') have today been admitted to trading on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange ('AIM'). The Company's trading symbol is 'MXP'. Listing Details • 73,920,000 Shares have been conditionally placed with investors by ODL Securities Limited, the Company's broker, to raise £25,872,000 (before expenses) for the Company. • On admission to AIM a total of 259,740,329 Shares were in issue capitalising the Company at £90,909,000 at the placing price. The Company's Nominated Advisor is Nabarro Wells & Co. Limited. Assets Max was formed in April 2005 for the purpose of acquiring an 80% interest in two contracts known as Blocks A&E and East Alibek in the Republic of Kazakhstan ('the Properties'), covering an area of over 12,000km2 and containing one oil bearing and two potentially oil bearing on-shore properties. The properties are being acquired for US$33,650,000 in cash and the issue of 134,100,000 Ordinary Shares in the Company. As registration of the contract rights in Kazakhstan has not yet been completed, US$24,050,000 of the cash consideration has been deferred pending registration. Blocks A&E • Part of the Pre-Caspian Basin of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which contains five super-giant sub-salt fields. • 25 smaller supra-salt oil fields have already been discovered in the area covered by Blocks A&E, which are excluded from the interests held by the Company. The discovered fields provide excellent exploration and development information. • the Directors are confident that there is scope for further discoveries of similar pools on the 12,455 sq kms of the contract area. • McDaniel & Associates Consultants Ltd have reported that most of the supra-salt prospects are expected to yield recoverable reserves in the range of 1 to 20 million bbls per pool. • Max has obtained significant amounts of Soviet-era 2D data, and the first 50 km2 of new 2D data has just been collected and is in the process of being interpreted. East Alibek • Located on the eastern margin of the Pre-Caspian basin, adjacent to the Alibekmola field, which is estimated to have reserves of 200 million bbls. • The main prospects are in the sub-salt carboniferous zones in the western side of the contract area thought to be similar in structure to the reservoirs in the Alibekmola field. • Based upon the very limited well and seismic data available at this time, total crude oil potential has been estimated by McDaniel & Associates Consultants Ltd to be in the range of 10 to 100 mmbbls within the contract area. The Properties are serviced by excellent infrastructure, including electrical power lines, a good network of all weather roads and an experienced oil industry work force. The Properties are also close to the regional rail and oil pipeline transportation systems and the East Alibek Contract Area is connected by a new pipeline to the Kenkiyak to Atyrau pipeline. Management • The Company is led by James A. Jeffs, as Chief Executive Officer, and Steve Kappelle, as Chief Operating Officer, two experienced oil industry executives. • They have previously occupied senior executive positions at Chaparral Resources and Whittier Energy in the case of James A. Jeffs and Shell and Unioil AG in the case of Steve Kappelle. • James A. Jeffs has also served as Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of The Whittier Trust Company, a US$4 billion Trust and Investment Management company, since 1994. • Steve Kappelle is also the Honorary Australian Consul for Kazakhstan and has worked closely with the Kazakh Government in various capacities in the oil and gas industry for a number of years. Strategy The Management's strategy is to: - initially explore for and develop oil pools in the shallower supra-salt prospects. The initial objective, using modern western exploration techniques, including 2D and 3D seismic, reprocessing and re-interpretation of well logs, is to quickly bring on-stream low risk, low cost oil reserves; and - obtain all the available seismic, geological and engineering data before seeking further finance or farmin to commence higher risk, higher cost exploration for larger oil discoveries in the deeper sub-salt prospects. The Company will undertake a detailed review of all the available data for the large sub-salt prospects, including re-processing and re-interpretation of existing seismic as well as shooting further 2D or 3D seismic, to more clearly define the exploration potential of Blocks A&E and East Alibek, prior to committing to any significant new capital expenditures for drilling deep wells. In the event that the Company were to be successful in making a large sub-salt discovery, the Directors expect that a very substantial further fundraising and/ or a farm-in by an oil and gas major may be required in order to develop the full potential of the Properties. However, the working capital available to the Company will be sufficient for its present requirements for at least the next 12 months. James A. Jeffs, Max's Chief Executive Officer, commented: 'I am delighted to be involved in a Company with such enormous potential. Whilst in the long run Max Petroleum intends to grow into an international oil and gas company, we viewed Kazakhstan as an attractive starting point from which to establish a foundation for the Company to expand. We were extremely pleased to get prospects of the calibre we did, and we will continue to look for other opportunities in the country, which boasts some of the potentially most rewarding prospects in the world. It is also a country which is encouraging foreign investment, has a stable government and an established and transparent economic infrastructure. Listing on AIM will allow Max to grow at the pace which the Company's management has targeted, focusing on short-term production possibilities and long-term exploration success.' Wednesday 26th October 2005 Enquiries: Max Petroleum PLC James A. Jeffs T: +44(0)20 7514 1490 Chief Executive Officer Steve Kappelle Chief Operating Officer Pelham Public Relations Charles Vivian T: +44(0)20 7743 6672 E : Charles.vivian@pelhampr.com Alisdair Haythornthwaite T : +44(0) 20 7743 6676 E: Alisdair.haythornthwaite@pelhampr.com Nabarro Wells & Co. Limited Hugh Oram T : +44(0) 20 7710 7400 Jonathan Naess This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange