AGM Statement and Trading Update

RNS Number : 6643D

Alkane Energy PLC

01 May 2013

 



1 May 2013

Alkane Energy plc

("Alkane" or the "Group")

AGM statement and Trading Update

The Board of Alkane will make the following statement on current trading at the Group's Annual General Meeting to be held at 11.00 a.m. today.

Output in the first three months of 2013 has reached 51GWh.  This represents a 70% increase on the same period last year.  The 2013 figure includes the full impact of the acquisition of Greenpark Energy Limited which completed in April 2012.  The quarterly growth in output on a pro forma basis would have been 27%.  Growth in output has come across both the Group's CMM baseload generation and our power response activities.

Market selling prices have remained relatively stable and the Group now has 90% of expected 2013 output contracted at £53/MWh and 15% of expected 2014 output contracted at £54/MWh.  Forward prices are currently showing incrementally higher prices with supply tightening as generating capacity is being decommissioned.

The project pipeline is progressing with a number of good prospects reaching the key drill stage.  If successful these new sites should benefit 2014 and beyond.

The workload of the design, build and operate business is high and we are focussed on the build phase of a number of biogas and onshore gas projects.

Neil O'Brien, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"We are pleased with progress in the CMM and power response businesses.  Forward market prices are beginning to reflect the tighter generation market as major power plant capacity closes or is mothballed.

Our strategy remains to increase capacity to take advantage of these rising prices."

For more information please contact:

Alkane Energy plc Neil O'Brien, Chief Executive Officer Steve Goalby, Finance Director	01623 827927
Altium Capital Limited Adrian Reed Andy Clarke	0845 505 4343
VSA Capital Limited Andrew Raca	020 3005 5000
Hudson Sandler Nick Lyon Alex Brennan	020 7796 4133
www.alkane.co.uk

Background Information

Alkane Energy is one of the UK's fastest growing independent power generators. The Company operates mid-sized "gas to power" electricity plants providing both predictable and fast response capacity to the grid.   Alkane now has a total of 70MW of installed generating capacity and an electricity grid capacity of 89MW.

Alkane's main operations are based on a portfolio of coal mine methane ("CMM") sites. Alkane has the UK's leading portfolio of CMM licences, enabling the Company to extract gas from abandoned coal mines.

As CMM declines at any one site Alkane retains valuable generating capacity and a grid connection which we can move to power response. Power response sites are connected to mains gas and produce electricity at times of high electrical demand or in order to balance the electricity grid.  Alkane now operates 25MW of power response on mains gas.

The Group operates from 20 mid-size (up to 10MW) power plants across the UK, 13 CMM only, 4 mains gas only, and 3 using both fuel sources.  We use standard modular reciprocating engines to generate the electricity, and sell this power through the electricity network. The engine units and other plant are designed to be flexible and transportable allowing additional capacity to be brought onto growing sites and underutilised plant to be moved to new sites to maximise efficiency.

Alkane has a range of core skills encompassing the entire project development cycle including planning and permitting, sourcing plant and managing the build and commissioning stage. This is enabling us to establish a Design, Build & Operate ("DBO") business for third party clients in the biogas and oil & gas industries.

The Group has more than 800km2 of acreage under various onshore Petroleum Exploration and Development Licences ("PEDLs").  Alkane retains a full 100% interest in the majority of these PEDLs, which extend to all of the hydrocarbons recoverable from these licence areas.   This includes any CMM, natural gas, coal bed methane ("CBM") and shale gas.

More information is available on our website www.alkane.co.uk.

 

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