TIDMUPL
RNS Number : 2979R
Upland Resources Limited
29 June 2020
NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART
IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES, AUSTRALIA, CANADA OR JAPAN
This announcement is not an offer for sale, or a solicitation of
an offer to acquire, securities in any jurisdiction, including in
or into the United States, Canada, Australia, or Japan. Neither
this announcement nor any part of it shall form the basis of or be
relied on in connection with or act as an inducement to enter into
any contract or commitment whatsoever.
29 June 2020
UPLAND RESOURCES LIMITED
("Upland" or the "Company")
Tunisian update and formation of Technical Panel
Upland Resources Limited (LSE: UPL), the oil and gas company
actively building a portfolio of attractive upstream assets in
proven, mature African and Asian basins with a focus upon Tunisia
and Sarawak, Malaysia, is pleased to report the following from its
activities in the Tunisian Saouaf licence area ('Saouaf Permit')
where the Company is currently engaged in a Joint Venture with the
Tunisian National Oil Company ('ETAP'):
Highlights:
-- Formation of Technical Panel to provide project governance,
technical oversight and guidance to all exploration and appraisal
activities. This panel will also assess and review potential
value-adding acquisition opportunities already identified.
-- Appointment of Mr. Roberto Bencini as a member of the
Technical Panel which reports to the Upland Board of Directors.
Roberto is a founder of GA.I.A. srl ('GAIA Consulting') and is an
accomplished consultant to the energy sector with vast experience
in Tunisia and North Africa with a proven record of successful oil
discoveries.
-- Further appointments to the Technical Panel are pending and
are to be advised in due course.
-- Transformational work programme to commence in Saouaf
beginning with reprocessing of existing ETAP seismic data to allow
planning for a subsequent, more concentrated data acquisition
campaign aimed at providing an inventory of prospects for future
drilling. This entire work programme and development of technical
data is expected to substantially increase value and strengthen
options ahead of engagement with industry farm-in partners.
-- Indications of a working petroleum system characterized by
both oil and gas migration with multiple existing leads and
potential prospects have been further augmented by additional
desktop studies.
-- A working petroleum system in the Saouaf licence area has
been further indicated by the oil recorded in the Bahloul interval
during the drilling of the SNJ-1 well with numerous Cretaceous oil
seepages reported.
-- Current oil price environment providing significant
opportunity to acquire interests in additional assets upon
attractive terms and a number of potential assets are currently
under consideration or evaluation including well intervention /
drill-ready candidates and existing production.
Following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on travel and
working conditions in both the United Kingdom and Tunisia, Upland
has focused a great deal of time in developing its geological
understanding of the Tunisian region especially with regards to
existing data for the Saouaf Dekrila-1 well and seismic database
together with more regional information. This exercise has improved
the Company's early understanding of the Saouaf Permit and has
increased Upland's overall expectation of the regional
prospectivity.
As a result, the Company has decided to establish, in the form
of a Technical Panel, a core area of expertise especially with
regards to its activities in Tunisia. This Technical Panel reports
to the Upland Board of Directors and has been adopted as part of
the Company's organisational structure in order to provide project
governance, technical oversight and guidance to all exploration and
appraisal activities in Tunisia in addition to assessment and
review of other potential North African value-adding acquisition
opportunities already identified and currently under consideration
and evaluation with Non-Disclosure Agreements.
In respect of the newly formed Technical Panel, Upland is
pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Roberto Bencini, who
successfully advised Petroceltic International Plc (formerly LSE:
PCI) in 2004 during Algeria's 5(th) International Licensing Round,
later resulting in the discovery of the giant Ain Tsila
gas-condensate field (538 million BOE recoverable reserves) in the
Illizi Basin, south east Algeria, to the Panel. Roberto Bencini,
founder of GAIA Consulting, has a wealth of oil and gas experience
and knowledge in the region including being part of the expert
teams behind several large commercial discoveries in Libya and
Algeria in similar geological settings to the Saouaf Permit and
other areas of interest to Upland in Tunisia. Roberto's expertise
will be invaluable to Upland in developing opportunities in Tunisia
where Upland may plan to make further license applications or
acquisitions, thus fast-tracking the company's North African oil
and gas interests.
As part of its Tunisian work programme, the Company's work plans
will be intended to integrate geology, geophysics and geochemistry
in order to complete a sound geological model of the subsurface of
the Saouaf license area. The technical work plan includes selecting
existing seismic lines for test reprocessing, which may also
indicate prospective new plays in the region. This will be a
precursor to further more focused seismic and drilling activity,
which will give core data for marketing to strategic industry
partners.
Upland CEO Chris Pitman commented:
"The formation of our Technical Panel is a major step forward in
Upland's ability to manage and capitalise on all our exploration
and appraisal activities. I would firstly like to welcome Roberto
Bencini, on behalf of all directors and shareholders, as the first
external member of Upland's Technical Panel. This Panel will report
directly to the Company's Board of Directors and Roberto's
significant regional experience will be invaluable to Upland as we
bring these highly prospective yet underexplored licences through
the development curve. Roberto, as one of the primary consultants
behind our original Sarawak evaluation and work programme
submission is well known to us.
In recent months we have focused upon analysing geological data
for Saouaf, which we know holds an abundance of diverse leads and
prospects from small gas fields, oil finds waiting to be appraised,
to entirely new plays consisting of large gas or gas-condensate
fields. These potentially game-changing opportunities range from
low-risk, low capex opportunities to high-potential, high-impact
wildcats capable of attracting the attention of large industry
players.
The Saouaf Permit is showing good indications of a working
petroleum system further augmented by our recent studies. We are
continuing to analyse this data and believe that there is
exceptional value to be added as we build out this attractive
licence and move it through the development curve.
Saouaf is not the sole focus of our North African efforts and
the Upland team are presently engaged in the consideration and
evaluation of a number of JV or acquisition possibilities including
drill-ready, well intervention candidates and those with existing
production. Our other focus is of course Sarawak and it has
recently been very encouraging to report positive developments in
that particular region where having identified a number of
high-impact opportunities we are well positioned with our strategic
partners. We encourage investors to follow developments
closely.
We look forward to being able to update the market upon a
regular basis with regards to our progress in both North Africa and
Asia and would like to thank shareholders for their support thus
far."
About the Saouaf Permit
The Saouaf Permit lies in a transitional zone between the Atlas
Province and the coastal Sahel domain characterised by a complex
tectonic history that gives rise to multiple structural traps
involving Early and Late Cretaceous formations as well as deeper
Jurassic potential. New stratigraphic potential related to sand
development in Miocene channels, proved in the Gulf of Hammamet,
has been interpreted in the eastern Enfidha platform area. Other
prospective plays are under study. There is, therefore, a high
chance of multiple, independent, leads to be the focus of
de-risking in the ongoing work programme.
A working petroleum system is indicated by the oil recorded in
the Bahloul interval during the drilling of the SNJ-1 well.
Numerous Cretaceous oil seepages are reported over the surface fold
features of Jebel Bou Dabbous, Jebel Bargou, Jebel Djehaf and
Jebels Garci and Fadhloun and are recorded by Enterprise Tunisienne
d'Activites Petrolieres ('ETAP') in field visits. Additional source
potential is evidenced in the southern area by the gas tested in
the Dekrila-1 well in the Middle Cretaceous level.
The Company has decided to re-process in the coming months
existing seismic lines to be selected on the basis of the
conclusions from the ongoing studies. The aim of such seismic data
re-processing is to advance the knowledge of existing plays and new
prospective plays that have been envisaged within the Saouaf
license area.
Improved seismic reflection imaging will be integrated into a
detailed geological model incorporating regional tectonics, seismic
sequence stratigraphy, well data and reservoir characterisation
studies. This model will allow the Company to optimise the
following seismic acquisition campaign planned to ensure de-risking
of multiple independent leads to develop a substantial prospect
inventory for future drilling opportunities.
The Company has elected to establish a core area of expertise
and operations within Tunisia. To this end, the Company is in
process of evaluating several additional opportunities and is
working towards applying for and negotiating additional prospecting
permits in proven regional petroleum fairways.
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes
of Article 7 of the Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 on market abuse
For further information, please contact:
Upland Resources Limited www.uplandres.com
Christopher Pitman, Tel: +44 (0)7891 677441
CEO
chris.pitman@uplandres.com
Optiva Securities - www.optivasecurities.com
Broker
Jeremy King Tel: _+44 (0)20 3137 1904
(Corporate Finance) jeremy.king@optivasecurities.com
Christian Dennis Tel: +44 (0)20 3411 1903
(Corporate Broker) christian.dennis@optivasecurities.com
FTI Consulting - Financial Tel: +44 (0)203 727 1065
PR ben.brewerton@fticonsulting.com
Ben Brewerton
Christopher Laing Tel: +44 (0)20 3727 1355
ch ristopher.laing @fticonsulting.com
Flowcomms - IR Contact
Sasha Sethi Tel: +44 (0)7891 677441
sasha@flowcomms.com
Notes to Editors
The Saouaf prospecting permit comprises an area of 4,004 square
kilometres and lies immediately adjacent to the western edge of the
Pelagian petroleum basin where there are numerous oil and gas
discoveries.
The Company is developing a professional relationship with ETAP
with a view to acquiring additional permits thought to have
significant overlooked potential and to be identified through our
studies.
-ENDS-
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END
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