NAUT.L Regulatory News (NAUT)

16 Jun 2005 07:00

Global Energy Development PLC16 June 2005 Immediate Release 16 June 2005 GLOBAL ENERGY DEVELOPMENT PLC AGM OPERATIONS UPDATE Global Energy Development PLC ("Global" or the "Company"), the Latin Americafocused petroleum exploration and production company, will provide the followingupdate on its operations at the Annual General Meeting to be held later today: "We believe we have amassed a prospect rich portfolio in our chosen geographicregion of Latin America over the last several years, an area where themanagement team have decades of operating experience and where our selectedcountries of Colombia, Peru and Panama offer independently acknowledgedworld-leading contract terms. We have already significantly added to our multiple prospects and acreageposition so far in 2005 through the addition of an exclusive contract, the Block95 Area in Peru, and exclusive Technical Evaluation Agreement ("TEA"), the ValleLunar Area in Colombia, that total approximately 3.4 million acres between them. We anticipate we will further enlarge our portfolio during the remainder of 2005beyond the 5.1 million acres currently held through six contracts in Colombiaand Peru, an exclusive TEA in Colombia and concluded exclusive TEA in Panama,which is under negotiation to be converted into an exclusive contract and whichwe now expect to sign mid-way through the second half of 2005 following contractdrafting which is currently taking place. Production is currently being achieved from four of our contracts, with hopesthis will rise to five by the end of 2005 through the commencement of productionfrom our Los Hatos contract in Colombia which was signed in November 2004 and isadjoined to the established, producing Palo Blanco field within the Alcaravancontract area. Location construction has already commenced for the firstexploratory well in the contract area, Los Hatos 1. Production for 2005 is expected to be materially above what was achieved in 2004as a result of drilling and workovers predominately within the Alcaravan and RioVerde contract areas in Colombia, with the majority of the anticipated uplift inproduction expected to come in the second half of 2005 in line with theCompany's drilling and workover programme. In addition, our production is nowsubject to enhanced pricing following the new crude oil sales contract weentered into with Petrobras as of 1 May 2005. Much of the exploration acreage under our control, including the new TEA andcontract signed this year, has good historical data stemming from work conductedby several international petroleum companies in previous years. Added to thiswe commissioned our independent engineers, Ryder Scott, to conduct anexploration potential reserve report over some of our exploration assets as at31 December 2004, namely the Block 95 Area in Peru, the Garachine Block Area inPanama and within the Bolivar Area in Colombia. These two data sources give us considerable optimism for our exploration assetsand good visibility on where to direct the portion of our capital expenditurebudget directed at exploration, with capital expenditure in 2005 expected to befunded from cash available and cashflow from established and new production. Weexpect to have the data from our commissioned aeromagnetic survey within theBlock 95 Area in Peru available for interpretation by August and anticipatefollowing this with seismic acquisition and formalised plans for the drilling ofour first well in the area. We believe the remainder of 2005 will see Global further strengthen itsposition." For further information: Global Energy Development PLCCatherine Miles, director of Investor Relations +44 (0) 20 7763 7177 www.globalenergyplc.com +44 (0) 7909918034 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange