TIDMUOG
RNS Number : 6455D
United Oil & Gas PLC
20 February 2020
United Oil & Gas PLC / Index: AIM / Epic: UOG / Sector: Oil
& Gas
20 February 2020
United Oil & Gas PLC
("United" or the "Company")
Update on Completion of Rockhopper Acquisition
United Oil & Gas Plc (AIM: "UOG"), the AIM listed oil and
gas exploration and development company, is pleased to announce the
satisfaction of the regulatory conditions attached to its proposed
acquisition ("Acquisition") of Rockhopper Egypt Pty Ltd., which
holds a 22% interest in the producing Abu Sennan field, from
Rockhopper Exploration plc. This follows receipt of the written
consents from EGPC and the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral
Resources of Egypt for the Rockhopper Acquisition on 20 February
2020.
In accordance with the terms of the Rockhopper Acquisition
Agreement, United now expects Completion and Admission to occur on
28 February 2020. A further announcement will be provided to the
market at that time.
Accordingly, application has been made for the Enlarged Ordinary
Share Capital comprising 619,153,969 Ordinary Shares to be admitted
to trading on AIM on 28 February 2020 ("Admission"). On Admission,
the Consideration Shares, the Placing Shares and the Subscription
Shares will rank pari passu in all respects with Existing Ordinary
Shares.
Given the passage of time since the publication of its Admission
Document dated 6 December 2019 and in line with regulatory
requirements, the Appendix 1 below summarises the additional
information which has been subsequently notified to the market by
the Company.
Defined terms used in this announcement have the meanings
ascribed to them in the Admission Document.
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by
the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under
the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 ("MAR").
ENDS
United Oil & Gas Plc (Company)
Brian Larkin, CEO brian.larkin@uogplc.com
Beaumont Cornish Limited (Nominated
Adviser)
Roland Cornish and Felicity Geidt +44 (0) 20 7628 3396
Optiva Securities Limited (Joint
Broker)
Christian Dennis +44 (0) 20 3137 1902
Cenkos Securities Plc (Joint Broker)
Joe Nally (Corporate Broking) +44 (0) 20 7397 8900
Derrick Lee and Pete Lynch +44 (0) 131 220 6939
Murray (PR Advisor) +353 (0) 87 6909735
Joe Heron jheron@murrayconsultants.ie
St Brides Partners (Financial PR/IR)
Frank Buhagiar and Priit Piip +44 (0) 207 236 1177
Appendix 1
A summary of the additional information which has been notified
by the Company since the publication of its Admission Document
dated 6 December 2019
1. On 12 December 2019 the Company announced the completion of
the sale of the North Sea Blocks 15/18d and 15/19b (Licence P2366)
to Anasuria Hibiscus UK Limited ('Hibiscus') for a headline
consideration of up to US$5million (the 'Sale').
The completion of the Sale triggered a payment of US$900,000 to
the sellers, United and its minority partner Swift Exploration Ltd.
(US$855,000 net to United). This is in addition to US$100,000
(US$95,000 net to United) previously paid on signing of the Crown
SPA, which is summarised at paragraph 12.52 of Part VII of the
Admission Document.
2. On 23 December 2019 the Company announced that at the
Company's General Meeting held on that day, all resolutions were
duly passed and therefore the acquisition of Rockhopper Egypt Pty
Limited was approved by Shareholders.
3. On 7 January 2020 the Company announced that according to the
announcement issued by Po Valley Energy Limited ("Po Valley"),
operator of the Podere Gallina Licence, Po Valley received formal
technical environmental approval from the Italian Environmental
Ministry for the development of the Selva Gas field. United holds a
20% economic interest in the Podere Gallina licence.
This approval is an important milestone in advance of the
decision to grant final approval by Environment Minister decree and
the issuing of the required INTESA (intergovernmental agreement)
and the final grant of a Production Concession issued by Italy's
Economic Development Ministry.
4. On 14 January 2020 the Company announced that the Production
Sharing Agreement on the Walton Morant Basin, Jamaica, operated by
Tullow Jamaica Ltd ('Tullow'), and in which United has a 20%
interest, has been amended to extend the Initial Exploration Period
during which a drill or drop decision is required for a further six
months. Tullow is a wholly owned subsidiary of leading independent
oil and gas exploration and production company Tullow Oil plc (LSE:
TLW).
The Initial Exploration Period was due to expire on the 31(st)
January 2020, at which point a commitment to drill an exploration
well would have been required to move into the next phase of the
licence. With the extension to the Initial Exploration Period, the
Joint Venture now has until the 31st July 2020 before the
drill-or-drop decision is required.
A Joint Venture farm-down effort being led by Tullow (operator
and 80% equity holder) is in progress, with the aim of bringing in
an additional partner(s) for exploration drilling in 2021 on the
Colibri prospect. A number of interested parties are continuing
their evaluations of the licence data, and the extension was
granted to provide sufficient time for these to be completed. The
extension does not require any additional work programme
commitments.
5. On 22 January 2020 the Company announced the following update
on the ASH-2 well ('ASH-2' or 'the Well') which was recently
drilled at Abu Sennan, current production at Abu Sennan and an
update on the timetable for the completion of the Rockhopper
acquisition.
ASH-2 well
ASH-2, which was drilled to a total depth of 4,030m in the Alem
El Buieb (AEB) Formation, has been completed to allow selective
production from both an upper and lower reservoir interval. The
upper and lower intervals were tested separately at maximum gross
rates of 7,027 and 3,851 bopd respectively.
ASH-2 came on stream on 2(nd) January and has been consistently
producing at over 3,000 bopd (660 bopd net to Rockhopper's 22%
interest) on a 32/64" choke. The well will continue to be monitored
over the coming months, and during this period, the interpretation
of the test data and the longer-term planning for the ASH
field-development will continue with the joint venture partners and
Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation ('EGPC'). The rig is
currently being mobilised for the first well in the 2020 infill
programme (El Salmiya 5) which is expected to spud shortly.
Since ASH-2 came on stream, gross production from the Abu Sennan
licence has averaged c. 8,000 boepd, which equates to c. 1,760
boepd net to Rockhopper's 22% interest.
In addition, the Company updated the market on the expected
timetable for completion of the Acquisition and confirmed that as
the original Acquisition Agreement and BP Facility contained
backstop dates of 22 January 2020 and the Placing Agreements
contained a 31 January 2020 backstop date, the Company, Rockhopper,
BP and United's Brokers (Cenkos and Optiva) have extended the
backstop dates on all of these agreements until the end of February
2020, which the Company expects will provide sufficient time for
approval of the Deed of Assignment and completion of the
Acquisition.
This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the
London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct
Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United
Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution
of this information may apply. For further information, please
contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.
END
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