2 August 2024
Orcadian Energy plc
("Orcadian" or the
"Company")
Earlham Exclusivity and Shell Facility
Agreement
Orcadian (AIM:ORCA) announces that, further to
the announcements on 22 May 2024, 13 June 2024, 1 July 2024 and 5
July 2024, that Shell International Trading and
Shipping Company Limited ("Shell") has confirmed to the Company
that it does not intend to take any steps in relation to existing
borrowings by the Company under its loan facility with Orcadian
(the "Shell Facility") until 31 August 2024.
Orcadian's proposed Industry Partner in respect
of the Earlham licence has made an initial payment of $100,000 to
Orcadian and Orcadian has paid the same amount to Shell (the
"Advance") and has undertaken to deliver the balance of funds, due
under the Shell Facility, to Orcadian by the end of August
2024.
The Advance will be secured by a charge over
the Earlham licence and as part of this the Earlham project is
exclusively dedicated to the Industry Partner until the end of
August 2024, with this exclusivity being automatically extended
until 31 December 2024 when the balance of the funds due to Shell
are paid.
Steve Brown,
Orcadian CEO, said:
"We have been
working very closely with both Shell and our Industry Partner to
ensure that we can meet our obligations to Shell and to support our
partner's financing processes which are ultimately intended to
deliver a clear pathway to production for the Earlham
discovery."
For further information on the Company please
visit the Company's website: https://orcadian.energy
Contact:
Orcadian Energy
plc
|
+ 44 20 7920 3150
|
Steve Brown, CEO
Alan Hume, CFO
|
|
Zeus (Nomad and
Joint Broker)
|
+44 20 3829 5000
|
Dan Bate / Alex Campbell-Harris (Investment
Banking)
Simon Johnson (Corporate Broking)
|
|
Novum (Joint
Broker)
|
+44 207 399 9425
|
Colin Rowbury / Jon Belliss
|
|
Tavistock
(PR)
|
+ 44 20 7920 3150
|
Nick Elwes / Simon Hudson
|
orcadian@tavistock.co.uk
|
About Orcadian
Energy
Orcadian is a North Sea focused, low emissions,
oil and gas exploration and development company. Orcadian may be a
small operator, but it is also nimble, and the Directors believe it
has grasped opportunities that have eluded some of the much bigger
companies. As we strike a balance between Net Zero and a
sustainable energy supply, Orcadian intends to play its part to
minimise the cost of Net Zero and to deliver reliable energy to the
UK.
Orcadian's key asset is the Pilot oilfield,
Pilot was discovered by PetroFina in 1989 and has been well
appraised. The field has excellent quality reservoir and contains
263MMbbl of a viscous oil ranging in gravity from 17º API in the
South of the reservoir to 12º API in the North. In planning the
Pilot development, Orcadian has selected polymer flooding and wind
power to transform the production of viscous oil into a cleaner and
greener process. Polymer significantly reduces fluid handling
requirements and hence energy consumption as well as boosting
recovery. Ithaca Energy, operator of the Captain field in the Inner
Moray Firth, has enjoyed consistent success in applying polymer
flood to the highly analogous Captain field. Following the recent
farm-down of Pilot, the project is now under the stewardship of
Ping Petroleum UK PLC ("Ping") and is intended to be amongst the
lowest carbon emitting oil production facilities in the
world.
Ping is progressing a low-emissions, phased,
field development plan for Pilot based upon a polymer flood of the
reservoir, a Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessel
(FPSO) and provision of power from a floating wind turbine or a
local wind farm.
Orcadian has an 18.75% fully carried interest
in licence P2244 (block 21/27a) and a 100% interest in licence
P2482 (blocks 28/2a and 28/3a). Ping is operator of P2244 and the
Pilot development project. As noted above Orcadian has also been
offered three licences in the 33rd licensing process and
expects formal issues of these licences in due course.
The Mid-North Sea High licence, P2650, contains
shallow gas leads. Orcadian applied in partnership with Triangle
Energy, an Australian listed energy company. Orcadian is licence
administrator and holds 50% of the offered licence. The Mid-North
Sea High licence covers blocks 29/16, 29/17, 29/18, 29/19, 29/21,
29/22, 29/23, 29/27 and 29/28.
The Fynn licence, P2634, contains a very
substantial heavy oil discovery. About 88% of the resource on a
best technical case is estimated to lie within the area of the
offered licence. Orcadian has a 50% working interest in the Fynn
licence which is operated by the Parkmead Group. The Fynn licence
covers blocks 14/15a, 14/20d and 15/11a.
The SNS licence, P2680 100% Orcadian, contains
the Earlham discovery, a low-calorie gas discovery with 114bcf of
methane resources on a P50 basis, the Clover prospect which has P50
prospective resources of 153bcf, and the decommissioned Orwell
field which has redevelopment potential, alongside a number of
smaller prospects.