Listing, New Board Committee & Director Change

RNS Number : 9913V

Hurricane Energy PLC

09 November 2017

 

9 November 2017

Hurricane Energy plc

("Hurricane" or the "Company")

Consideration of Premium Listing, New Board Committee

and Directorate Change

Hurricane Energy plc, the UK based oil and gas company focused on hydrocarbon resources in naturally fractured basement reservoirs, provides an update on plans to explore a change in the Company's listing venue, corporate governance and a directorate change.

Consideration of Premium Listing

Following discussions with shareholders, and in light of the Company's increased institutional shareholder base since the recent US$530 million capital raise, the Company is exploring a number of options, including application for admission of its ordinary shares to a premium segment of a recognised stock exchange ("Premium Listing"). The Company directors believe that a Premium Listing could provide the Company with a more appropriate platform for its growth, raise the Company's global profile, potentially increase its trading liquidity and provide it with a wider addressable investor universe for its ordinary shares.

Listing and Governance Committee

The Board recognises the increased size and scale of the Company's operations as it moves towards target first oil. Given this, and the Premium Listing considerations mentioned above, the Board considers it timely to review its current organisational and governance structure. Accordingly, a sub-committee of the Board has been established, the Listing and Governance Committee ("LGC"), to evaluate the Company's organisation and governance structure, and provide recommendations for changes that will better suit the ongoing requirements of a company of Hurricane's scale and growth profile.

The LGC will be chaired by John van der Welle (Independent Non-Executive Director) and Evercore Partners has been appointed to provide independent advice to the committee.

The LGC's scope will include, amongst other things:

·     Evaluation of the merits of a potential move to a Premium Listing

·     Recommendations on Board size, composition and structure including governance protocols and the formation of additional sub-committees

·     Recommendations on any changes to organisational structure, and internal processes and procedures

·     Recommendations on enhanced reporting and disclosure associated with a Premium Listing

·     Assessment of regulatory or other changes that may impact on the Company's activities

The LGC Terms of Reference are available on the Company's website: https://www.hurricaneenergy.com/.

Admission of the Company's shares to trading on the premium segment of a recognised stock exchange is subject to a decision of the Board to proceed and the ultimate discretion of the relevant authorities.

Directorate Change

The Company also announces the resignation of the Company's Non-Executive Chairman, Dr Robert Arnott, with immediate effect. Dr David Jenkins, Senior Independent Non-Executive Director, has assumed the role of interim Chairman and Chair of the Nominations Committee until the LGC has nominated a suitable candidate.

Dr Robert Trice, Chief Executive, commented:

"Following our successful fundraising and corresponding business transformation, I am pleased to announce the Board's preparation for future growth, through the formation of the Listing and Governance Committee. The establishment of this committee demonstrates Hurricane's commitment to achieving best practice disclosure, reporting and corporate governance standards, commensurate with a Premium Listed business.

"I would like to thank Rob for his time as Chairman and contribution to the Company through what has been a transformational period of growth and development.

"I am pleased to confirm that operational progress towards our target of first oil on the EPS continues to be on schedule, with the FPSO currently undergoing upgrade work in Dubai and our planned revised CPR, which includes Lincoln and Halifax, remaining on track for publication by year end. We look forward to providing an update on operations as relevant milestones are reached."

Contacts: 

Hurricane Energy plc	Dr Robert Trice (Chief Executive Officer)/Alistair Stobie (Chief Financial Officer)	[phone]
Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited	Nominated Adviser and Corporate Broker Callum Stewart/Nicholas Rhodes/Ashton Clanfield	[phone]
Vigo Communications	Public Relations Patrick d'Ancona/Ben Simons	[phone] [e-mail]

About Hurricane

Hurricane was established to discover, appraise and develop hydrocarbon resources associated with naturally fractured basement reservoirs.

Hurricane's acreage is concentrated on the Rona Ridge, West of Shetland.  The Lancaster field, the Company's most appraised asset, has combined 2P Reserves and 2C Resources of 523 million stock tank barrels of oil. The Company is currently proceeding towards the first phase of development of Lancaster, an Early Production System, with first oil targeted for 1H 2019.

During the 2016-2017 drilling campaign the Company made two significant discoveries* at Halifax and Lincoln, indicating that the Greater Lancaster Area and the Greater Warwick Area have the potential to be two large accumulations.

Hurricane's other assets include Whirlwind, which has 2C Contingent Resources of 205 million barrels of oil equivalent (under the Whirlwind oil case).

*Discovery - This classification is consistent with SPE/AAPG/WPC and SPEE guidelines for Petroleum Resource Management - Determination of Discovery Status

Inside Information

This announcement contains inside information as stipulated under the market abuse regulation (EU no. 596/2014). Upon the publication of this announcement via regulatory information service this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

 

END

 

 

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