Issue of new shares

RNS Number : 1945C

Independent Oil & Gas PLC

14 October 2015

 

14 October 2015

Independent Oil and Gas plc

Issue of new shares

Independent Oil and Gas plc ("IOG" or the "Company"), (AIM: IOG.L), the North Sea focused oil and gas company, has received notification from Darwin Capital Ltd ("Darwin") that it has sold all of the Subscription Shares that it held pursuant to the loan provided to IOG.  The Subscription Shares are ordinary shares in the capital of the Company ("Ordinary Shares"). The proceeds of the sale have been used to reduce the outstanding loan.  Darwin has also now converted the remaining amounts outstanding under the loan into Ordinary Shares.  The details are as follows:

·     The sale of 2,103,794 Subscription Shares, held by Darwin, concluded on 8 October 2015 which represents all of the remaining Subscription Shares held by Darwin pursuant to the financing as announced on 5 June 2014.

·     The sale of these Subscription Shares resulted in the reduction of the outstanding loan owed by IOG to Darwin from £322,580 to £245,781 and provided additional working capital to IOG of £15,960.

·     IOG received a debt conversion notice on 13 October 2015 confirming that Darwin has elected to convert the remaining £245,781 balance of its loan to IOG into 6,507,399 new Ordinary Shares (the "Loan Shares") at a price of 3.777p per Loan Share, equating to 85% of the three lowest weighted average prices over the preceding 10 trading day period.

·     Application has therefore been made for the 6,507,399 new Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM ("Admission").  Admission is expected to occur on 19 October 2015.  Following Admission there will be 76,574,837 Ordinary Shares in issue.  Accordingly, this number may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in the Company under the FCA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

·     If Darwin, or any other shareholder, has any notifiable interest on this or any other date a TR1 form must be issued at which point IOG would immediately release an RNS.

·     IOG now has funding until late November and further updates will follow in due course.

Mark Routh, CEO of IOG commented:

"It is important for IOG and all its stakeholders that the outstanding liability to Darwin has been extinguished.  We are grateful that Darwin has allowed their loan to be restructured and extended several times without levying additional interest and fees.

We look forward to providing a further operational and financial update in due course."

-ENDS-

Enquiries:

Independent Oil and Gas plc Mark Routh (CEO) Peter Young (CFO)	[phone]
finnCap Ltd Matt Goode/Christopher Raggett (Corporate Finance)	[phone]
Camarco Billy Clegg / Georgia Mann	[phone]

Notes

About Independent Oil and Gas:

IOG is an oil and gas company with established assets focused on the UK North Sea.  The company's strategy is to deliver near term development and production assets in North West Europe, through its extensive technical and commercial expertise, whilst maintaining some exposure to exploration upside.  The company is looking to grow both organically and through acquisition.  After the completion of the Skipper acquisition from Alpha Petroleum Resources Ltd. ("Alpha") and the previously announced Cronx acquisition, the combined estimate of 2P reserves and 2C resources net to IOG will be 38.6 million barrels of oil equivalent ("MMBoe").

Post completion of the Cronx acquisition IOG will have five licences in the North Sea.  Four of these licences will now be owned 100% by IOG and subject to DECC/OGA approval will be operated by IOG.  The Blythe licence is co-owned 50% with Alpha which is the operator.  IOG has a 100% working interest in two other licences, one awarded in the 27^th licensing round and another in the recent 28^th licensing round.  One is to the east of Blythe containing the Truman prospect and Harvey discovery and the other is between the Blythe and Cronx licences which contains the Elgood and Hambleton discoveries and the Tetley and Rebellion prospects.  Both these 100% owned licences have potential resources that could be tied back to nearby infrastructure or to the Blythe development.

Further information can be found on www.independentoilandgas.com

About Blythe:

The Blythe gas discovery straddles Blocks 48/22b and 48/23a in the Southern North Sea in licence P1736 which is 50% co-owned by IOG and Alpha (operator).  Blythe needs no further appraisal and has independently verified gross 2P reserves of 34.3 BCF (6.1 MMBoe) which is 17.2 BCF (3.0 MMBoe) net to IOG.  (Source: ERC Equipoise Competent Person's Report ("CPR") dated September 2013.)

The partnership is working towards submitting a Field Development Plan for Blythe by the end of 2015.

About Skipper:

The Skipper oil discovery is in Block 9/21a in the Northern North Sea in licence P1609.  Skipper needs further appraisal by drilling a well to retrieve an oil sample in order to design the optimum field development plan.  Subject to the completion of the previously announced acquisition of Skipper from Alpha, IOG can now progress to the appraisal and development stage of this asset.  Skipper has independently verified gross 2C resources of 26.2 MMBbls.  The appraisal well will also target two exploration prospects directly beneath the Skipper oil discovery which may contain oil in place of 46 MMBbls.  (Source: AGR Tracs CPR dated September 2013.)

About Cronx:

IOG has agreed to acquire 100% of Cronx (Block 48/22a, licence P1737) which is subject to completion.  The Cronx gas discovery is 14km north-west of the Blythe field in which IOG owns 50%.  Cronx was discovered in 2007 by well 48/22b-6 drilled by Perenco UK Ltd.

IOG commissioned an independent CPR by ERC Equipoise on Cronx in July 2012 which shows a base case expected gas recovery of 17.6 BCF or 3.4 MMBOE 2C resource.  IOG anticipates drilling a well in 2016, subject to rig availability, the necessary permits and funding.  IOG expects the well to confirm the recoverable resources, which IOG believes has the potential to be larger than the 17.6 BCF base case in the CPR.  IOG is currently evaluating options for the development and export of the Cronx gas.

About Elgood and Hambleton:

The Elgood discovery (IOG 100%) (Block 48/22c, licence P2260) was drilled by Enterprise Oil in 1991 and tested gas to surface at 17.6 MMcfd but was not progressed by Enterprise due to size and gas prices at that time.  IOG's estimate of the recoverable reserves in Elgood is 2.1 MMBoe.

The Hambleton discovery, to the south of the same licence, was drilled by Century Exploration in 2005 but also was not progressed to development.  IOG estimates that Hambleton has recoverable resources of 6 BCF (1 MMBoe).  IOG believes that the reprocessing of existing 3D seismic data could increase recoverable resources up to 26 BCF.

There are prospective resources on licence P2260 of 5.3 MMBoe in the Tetley and Rebellion prospects.  Reprocessing of existing 3D seismic across 48/22a and 48/22c is required to determine whether Elgood connects to Cronx which would boost recoverable reserves significantly.  The new seismic interpretation will also determine the likely size of Hambleton.  IOG is now working on the potential development plans and will commission a CPR‎ to confirm the resources over this area.

 

END

 

 

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