United Oil & Gas PLC (‘United’ or ’the Company’)
Provisionally Awarded Two Blocks Including an Oil Discovery in the UK North Sea
Highlights:
- Blocks 15/18d and 15/19b provisionally awarded to United in the UK 30th Licensing Round
- Award includes the Crown oil discovery, which could contain up to 16 million barrels of oil
- Application was part of strategy to build a portfolio of high grade targets with near term activity
- Portfolio now includes a blend of commercial discoveries, appraisal projects and high impact exploration
United Oil & Gas Plc, the London Stock Exchange listed oil and gas exploration and development company, is pleased to announce that it has been provisionally awarded, in the UK Continental Shelf 30th Offshore Licensing Round, two highly prospective blocks in the Central North Sea, including the Crown Oil Discovery which could contain up to 16 million barrels of recoverable oil.
The Company has been provisionally awarded a 95% interest in Blocks 15/18d and 15/19b which cover an area of c. 13.6 sq km and contain multiple targets. The Blocks, which have been applied for in conjunction with private oil and gas exploration company Swift Exploration Ltd, are close to the substantial Piper, MacCulloch and Dumbarton/Donan oil fields.
Block 15/19b contains the Palaeocene Crown Discovery, which was made following the drilling of well 15/19-9 in 1998 by ConocoPhillips. United’s internal estimates suggest a range in recoverable volumes for Crown of 4-16mmbbls oil, with mid-case estimates of ~9mmbbls.
The Blocks have been awarded on the basis of a work programme involving seismic reprocessing to reduce the uncertainty on the estimated oil volumes and to optimise the location of any future development well.
The licence applications are part of the Company’s strategy to identify and acquire exploration/development plays that offer investors near term value trigger opportunities and significant value upside. United’s existing portfolio includes the Colibri target on the Tullow Oil-operated Walton-Morant licence offshore Jamaica, which has been estimated to hold gross mean-case prospective resources of over 200mmbbls; a commercial gas discovery in the Po Valley region of Italy; and the UK near shore Colter Discovery, which lies in the same play as the prolific Wytch Farm field.
United Oil & Gas Plc CEO, Brian Larkin, said, “We rated the Crown discovery our primary target in the 30th Round. This was based on the results of extensive technical work carried out over the available acreage ahead of the application. We are therefore looking forward to commencing the work programme which is focused on progressing the Crown Discovery towards development, as well as delineating additional prospectivity across both licences.
“The award of the blocks is part of the strategy of utilising our technical expertise to develop what we believe to be highly prospective opportunities. Crown is the latest addition to our growing portfolio of high grade targets in the UK, Italy, and offshore Jamaica that are at various stages of development and monetisation. We continue to evaluate further acquisition opportunities and with activity taking place across our portfolio in H2 2018, including appraisal drilling of the Colter Discovery in the UK, the next few months will not be short of high impact newsflow.”
**ENDS**
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) 596/2014.
For more information please visit the Company’s website at www.uogplc.com or contact:
United Oil & Gas Plc (Company) | |
Brian Larkin | brian.larkin@uogplc.com |
Optiva Securities Limited (Broker) | |
Christian Dennis | +44 (0) 20 3137 1902 |
Beaumont Cornish Limited (Financial Adviser) | |
Roland Cornish and Felicity Geidt | +44 (0) 20 7628 3396 |
Murray (PR Advisor) | +353 (0) 87 6909735 |
Joe Heron | jheron@murrayconsultants.ie |
Notes to Editors
United Oil & Gas plc (UOG) is listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange. United was established to explore, appraise and develop low risk assets in Europe and North Africa and to develop higher risk, higher impact exploration projects in Latin America and Africa.
The following table outlines the Company’s licence interests:
Country | Licence | Operator | United Interest |
Italy | Podere Gallina Licence | Po Valley Energy Limited | 20% |
United Kingdom | Waddock Cross Field | Egdon Resources UK Limited | 26.25% |
United Kingdom | PL090 Exploration | Egdon Resources UK Limited | 18.95% |
United Kingdom | P1918 | Corallian Energy Limited | 10%** |
United Kingdom | PEDL 330 | Corallian Energy Limited | 10%** |
United Kingdom | PEDL 345 | Corallian Energy Limited | 10%** |
Jamaica | Walton-Morant | Tullow Jamaica Ltd | 20% |
** Option to acquire a further 10%
Click on, or paste the following link into your web browser, to view the associated PDF document of the Licence Location
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/5287X_1-2017-11-26.pdf