Redemption of remaining Arato Loan Notes & Placing

RNS Number : 9521M

Predator Oil & Gas Holdings PLC

14 May 2020

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 14 May 2020

Predator Oil & Gas Holdings Plc / Index: LSE / Epic: PRD / Sector: Oil & Gas

Predator Oil & Gas Holdings Plc

("Predator" or the "Company" and together with its subsidiaries "the Group")

  Redemption   of remaining Arato Global Opportunities LLC ("Arato") Loan Notes 

  and Placing to raise  £0.448million

Predator Oil & Gas Holdings Plc (PRD), the Jersey-based Oil and Gas Company with operations in Trinidad, Morocco and Ireland is pleased to announce that it has conditionally placed 22,438,842   new ordinary shares of no par value in the Company (the "Placing Shares") at a placing price of 2 pence each (the "Placing Price") to raise £0.448million (before expenses) (the "Placing").

The Placing was significantly oversubscribed and utilises all of the Company's existing headroom shares under the Financial Conduct Authority restrictions for companies on the Official List (standard listing segment) of the London Stock Exchange's main market for listed securities .

Novum Securities are acting as placing agents to the Company.

Settlement in full of outstanding Arato Convertible Loan Notes

The well-capitalised position of the Company combined with significant operational progress towards generating revenues from the CO2 EOR project in Trinidad, has created the opportunity to settle in full the outstanding Arato Convertible Loan Notes. Eliminating debt potentially strengthens the near-term growth prospects of the Company as COVID-19 restrictions are gradually relaxed.

The Company has given an irrevocable notice to repay the remaining £746,000 of the Loan Notes (the Outstanding Principal) together with redemption fees (together, the Redemption Monies) on or before 15 May 2020. Arato have agreed to accept the Redemption Monies in cash.

Redemption Monies will be funded from the Placing and from utilising some cash resources from the Company's well-capitalised balance sheet.

Impact on working capital requirements

The successful and oversubscribed Placing announced on 14 February 2020 allowed some additional discretionary working capital to be raised surplus to that required to satisfy all of the Company's current work programme commitments. Cost reductions have been achieved during COVID-19 for the Company's operations without compromising the ability to deliver revenues from Trinidad or the execution of the Moroccan drilling programme. The additional release of the Arato security over the first US$1 million of the Guercif Bank Guarantee, returned after the completion of the Guercif commitment well, further strengthens the Company's balance sheet. Going forward that restricted cash can potentially be leveraged to secure improved commercial terms with some drilling service companies and equipment providers, with some potential for risk-sharing and deferred payments given the weakened position of the services market. This makes for more effective use of such cash.

The Company remains, after repayment of the outstanding Arato Convertible Loan Notes, fully funded to progress CO2 EOR in Trinidad to the point when profits are generated and to execute the high impact Guercif drilling programme in Morocco targeting the gas market in Morocco.

Operations summary

Operational, HSE and regulatory progress in Trinidad has been successfully maintained and managed during the COVID-19 imposition of social distancing restrictions. As a result, the Company is confident that profits from enhanced CO2 EOR oil production, even at a sustained WTI oil price of US$20 per barrel, will make a positive impact on the Company's cash balances. Such profits are additional to the working capital raised for the Company to fulfil its current work programmes.

The Company remains "drill ready" in Morocco, with environmental approvals granted and in- country rig availability maintained at no cost to the Company. Well equipment also remains available in Morocco. The drilling programme can be advanced as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are relaxed and the HSE conditions under which operations can be carried out are agreed and put into practice.

The Company is working on a faster-track solution to monetise an initial gas discovery at Guercif in the event of drilling success. GRF-1 was drilled in 1972 less than two kilometres from the proposed well to be drilled by the Company. Well logs over an interval interpreted as gas-bearing by a previous operator in 2006 are now being re-evaluated by Houston-based NuTech, a company specialising in applying new technology to old well logs. The first well location has been optimised to ensure that this significant potential gas target can be added to the existing gas targets. This will potentially maximise well deliverability in a success case to support the option being developed for initial monetisation of gas. Morocco remains a very attractive market for gas and the impact of COVID-19 only reinforces the importance of focussing on local gas markets where less carbon intensive gas is competing against more carbon intensive, higher priced, imported fuel oil.

Predator Oil & Gas Holdings Plc CEO Paul Griffiths commented:-

"I am very pleased to announce that through this Placing and the well-capitalised position of the Company we have removed the debt created by the Convertible Loan Notes. We have achieved this by reaching a secure position whereby cash can be prudently used to achieve this purpose without compromising delivering our work programme commitments.

Focus can now be exclusively on utilising our lean team to deliver near-term operational results and to further develop growth potential, by using our debt-free balance sheet, restricted cash asset, and accumulated specialist expertise in Trinidad and Morocco as leverage to secure attractive commercial deals."

Completion of the Placing

Completion of the Placing is conditional on, inter alia:-

the Placing Shares being admitted to listing on the Official List (standard listing segment) and to trading on the London Stock Exchange's main market for listed securities ("Admission") on or before 29 May 2020 (or such later date as may be agreed by the Company and Novum Securities).

Agreement with Arato Global Opportunities LLC

§ An Orderly Market Agreement remains in place

§ Arato releases security over the USD 1 million cash in the form of the returnable Bank Guarantee from ONHYM following completion of the Moulouya well.

Admission, Settlement and Dealings in Placing Shares

Applications will be made to the FCA and to the London Stock Exchange for Admission in respect of all the Placing Shares proposed to be issued on completion of the Placing.  It is expected that Admission will become effective, and that dealings in the Placing Shares are expected to commence, at 8.00 a.m. on 29 May 2020.

The rights attaching to the Placing Shares will be uniform in all respects and all of the Placing Shares will rank pari passu, and form a single class for all purposes with, the existing issued shares of no par value in the Company.

Following Admission of the Placing Shares, the enlarged Share Capital will be 239,678,517 ordinary shares of no par value.

Enquiries:

Predator Oil & Gas Holdings plc Paul Griffiths  Chief Executive Officer Carl Kindinger  Non-Executive Chairman	Tel:  [phone]
Novum Securities Limited  Jon Belliss Optiva Securities Limited Christian Dennis	Tel: + 44(0) 207 399 9425 Tel: [phone]

Follow us also on VOX Market https://www.voxmarkets.co.uk/ This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7   of the Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 on market abuse

Qualified Person's statement:

The information contained in this document has been reviewed and approved by Mr. Paul Griffiths, Chief Executive Officer. Mr Griffiths has a BSc in Geology from Imperial College London and is an Associate of the Royal School of Mines. Mr. Griffiths has over 43 years of relevant experience in the upstream oil industry.

Notes to Editors:

Predator is operator of the Guercif Petroleum Agreement onshore Morocco which is prospective for Tertiary gas in a prospect 4 kilometres from the Maghreb gas pipeline, and deeper Triassic gas. A well location has been selected for drilling and a rig option agreement has been entered into.

Predator is an oil and gas exploration company with the objective of participating with FRAM Exploration Trinidad Ltd. in further developing the remaining oil reserves in the producing Inniss Trinity oil field onshore Trinidad, primarily through the application of C02 EOR technology. Potential for cash flow exists by executing the Pilot Enhanced Oil Recovery project using locally sourced carbon dioxide for injection into the oil reservoirs ("C02 EOR"). Near-term expansion and growth potential is focussed on upscaling the C02 EOR operations in the Inniss-Trinity oil field.

In addition, Predator also operates exploration and appraisal assets in licensing options offshore Ireland, for which Successor Authorisations have been applied for, adjoining Shell's Corrib gas field in the Slyne Basin on the Atlantic Margin and east of the Kinsale gas field in the Celtic Sea. Ireland however remains a very challenging regulatory environment for business investment in the oil and gas sector and is not the immediate focus of the Company's near-term operations.

The Company has a highly experienced management team with a proven track record in the oil and gas industry.

 

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