PCI.L Regulatory News (PCI)

22 Jun 2005 11:15

Petroceltic International PLC22 June 2005 22nd June 2005 Petroceltic International Plc AGM Statement Petroceltic International Plc, ("the company" or Petroceltic") held its AGMtoday at 11am. At the AGM, John Craven, the Managing Director of Petrocelticsaid the following: "Since the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) covering the Isarene contract areain the Illizi Basin of Southern Algeria came into force at the beginning ofJune, we have received some exciting new data. A review of the recently obtainedhistorical well and seismic data confirms the company's interpretation of theexistence of a large shallow gas play across a strike length of 80 kilometreswith the potential to contain a multi trillion cu ft of gas resource. Thisprospect incorporates nine successful wells, seven of which have previouslyproduced gas flows of up to 4.7 million cu ft per day per well and one of whichflowed oil at 500 barrels of oil per day. Testing this feature will be a majorpart of the drilling campaign. As previously reported, three other prospectareas, including Hassi Tab Tab which already has a successful well which flowedgas at rates of up to 25million cubic feet of gas per day, will also be part ofour future drilling campaign". "In addition, the data has revealed a new potential 400 million barrel oilprospect in the south-western part of the block". "The data confirms our belief in the potential of the Algerian acreage. Thecompany will now accelerate its plans to further analyse the data and proceed todrilling as soon as practical". "Petroceltic holds 75% of the oil and gas interests in the Isarene permit area.Its partner Sonatrach, which is the world's 13th largest oil and gas company,holds 25%. As a result of the Isarene permit area being entered into force,Petroceltic and Sonatrach have access to a large seismic and well database. TheCompany estimates this database to have a present day value of approximately$100 million". "Algeria already supplies 29% of Europe's natural gas imports and plans toincrease production capacity by 40% by 2015. European consumption of natural gasis expected to grow by 46% by 2010. Algeria is the world's sixth largest gasproducer and 16th largest oil producer". - Ends - For further Information, call: John Craven, Petroceltic International Plc 00353 1 495 9285 Billy Clegg/Jonathan Brill, Financial Dynamics 020 7831 3113 Ronnie Simpson, Simpson FTPR 00353 1 260 5300 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange