Morocco Exit Finalised
29 May 2015
Morocco Exit Finalised
Finalisation of Interest in Tarfaya Offshore Block
88 Energy ("Company") is pleased to announce that it has received notification
that the Moroccan Minister for Energy and Minister for Finance have signed the
assignment document, finalising the divestment of the interests of DVM
International SARL ("DVM", 88 Energy's subsidiary in Morocco) in the Tarfaya
Offshore Block.
This completes the assignment process and removes a potential liability from 88
Energy's subsidiary, DVM, to Galp Energia ("Galp") of US$3.4m, if the
assignment had not been completed under its agreement with Galp.
Previous agreements executed by DVM, Galp and Office Nationale des
Hydrocarbures et des Mines (ONHYM) meant that the potential liability was
considered a very low risk proposition; however, with the formal completion of
the assignment, this potential liability has now been removed.
Managing Director of 88 Energy Ltd, Dave Wall commented: "This formally
concludes the Moroccan chapter of the Company's history and allows 88 Energy
and its shareholders to firmly focus on our world class exploration asset
onshore Alaska. It also completely removes a financial risk for the Company's
shareholders that, whilst always a very low probability, is now behind us."
It should be noted that the contingent liability (separate to that referenced
above) between 88 Energy and Galp remains, which stipulates that Galp is
entitled to a payment of US$3.4m in cash or 88 Energy stock if the market
capitalisation of 88 Energy reaches or exceeds US$50m (~A$65m) before September
2021.
Yours faithfully
Dave Wall
Managing Director
88 Energy Ltd
Project Icewine Highlights
In November 2014, the Company entered into a binding agreement with Burgundy
Xploration (BEX) to acquire a significant working interest (87.5%, reducing to
78% on spud of the first well on the project) in a large acreage position on a
multiple objective, liquids rich exploration opportunity onshore Alaska, North
America, referred to as Project Icewine.
88 Energy, (through BEX their co-venture partner), was announced highest bidder
on 90,720 acres (revised to 89,542 post survey) in the November State lease
sale for the North Slope of Alaska on 20 November 2014. Post award of the
acreage in Q2 2015 88 Energy will secure a 98,182 gross contiguous acre
position with 85,900 acres net to the Company (76,582 net acres post spud). The
primary term for the State leases is 10 years with no mandatory relinquishment
and a low 16.5% royalty.
Figure 1: Project Icewine Location (please refer to the pdf version of this
announcement available from the Company's website)
Generous exploration incentives are provided by the State of Alaska with up to
85% of exploration expenditure in 2015 cash refundable, dropping to 75% mid
2016 and thereafter 35%.
The primary objective is an untested, unconventional liquids-rich shale play
in a prolific source rock, the HRZ shale,(Brookian Sequence), that co-sourced
the largest oil field in North America; the giant Prudhoe Bay Oil Field
Complex. Internal modelling and analysis indicates that Project Icewine is
located in a high liquids vapour phase sweetspot analogous to those encountered
in other Tier 1 shale plays e.g. the Eagle Ford, Texas.
Conventional play potential can be found at Project Icewine within the same
Brookian petroleum system and shallow to the HRZ shale and includes high
porosity channel and deep water turbiditic sands. The Brookian conventional
play is proven on the North Slope; the USGS (2013) estimate the remaining oil
potential to be 2.1 billion barrels just within the Brookian sequence.
Additional conventional potential exists in the deeper Kuparuk sands and the
Ivashuk Formation.
Drilling, (2012), in the adjacent acreage to the north confirmed that the HRZ
shales, along with the underlying Kingak & Shublik shales, were all within the
oil window which is extremely encouraging for the unconventional potential at
Project Icewine. In addition a conventional oil discovery was reported in the
Kuparuk sandstones.
A Prospective Resources Report by DeGolyer and MacNaughton, was commissioned by
88 Energy to evaluate the unconventional resource potential of Project Icewine
in early December 2014 and was released to the market on 19 January 2015.
About 88 Energy: 88 Energy recently acquired an initial 87.5% working interest
and operatorship in 98,182 acres onshore the prolific North Slope of Alaska
("Project Icewine"). The North Slope is the host for the 15 billion barrel
Prudhoe Bay oilfield complex, the largest in North America. The Company, with
its Joint Venture partner Burgundy Xploration, has identified two highly
prospective play types that are likely to exist on the Project Icewine acreage
- one conventional and one unconventional. The large resource potential of the
Icewine Project was recently independently verified by leading international
petroleum resource consultant DeGolyer and MacNaughton. In addition to the
interpreted high prospectivity, the project is strategically located on a
year-round operational access road and only 35 miles south of Pump Station 1
where Prudhoe Bay feeds into the TransAlaska Pipeline System. The Company plans
to progress drilling and seismic in the near term to take advantage of the
globally unique fiscal system in Alaska, which allows for up to 85% of CY2015
exploration expenditure to be rebated in cash.
Media and Investor Relations:
Australia
88 Energy Ltd
admin@88energy.com
+61 8 9485 0990
Hartleys Ltd
As Corporate Advisor
Mr Dale Bryan
+61 8 9268 2829
United Kingdom
RFC Ambrian Limited
As Nominated Adviser
Mr Oliver Morse
+61 8 9480 2500