Update on Helium One Investment

RNS Number : 4572C

Solo Oil Plc

22 January 2018

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Embargoed until 7 am                                                       22 January 2018

SOLO OIL PLC

("Solo" or the "Company")

Update on Helium One Investment

Solo Oil plc (AIM: SOLO), the natural resources investment company focused on acquiring and developing a diverse global non-operated portfolio of strategic oil and gas assets, is pleased to announce recent progress being reported by Helium One Limited ("Helium One"), the pure play helium explorer in Tanzania in which Solo currently holds a 15% equity interest.   

Helium One has informed its shareholders of various financing options available to fund ongoing exploration activities.  One of these options may involve undertaking an initial public offering ("IPO") on the Australian Securities Exchange ("ASX") (the "Listing").  To this end, Helium One has appointed PAC Partners Pty Limited ("PAC Partners") to review the options associated with a possible IPO and Listing on ASX. 

Whilst the exact timing and nature of the capital raising is yet to be finalised the current expectation is that Helium One will target a listing in mid-2018, should this ultimately be the preferred financing path.  

PAC Partners is a leading stockbroker for emerging companies in Australia, having raised over A$350m in new equity in 2017 and led a number of successful IPO's.  PAC Partners focuses on a limited number of industry sectors, one of which is energy and resources.

Helium One has also reported significant operational progress with the ongoing reprocessing of seismic data adding improved resolution and allowing further investigation of the observed direct helium indicators ("DHIs"); such as bright spots.  Once the present reprocessing is completed a full reinterpretation of all relevant data, including the airborne gravity gradiometry, will be undertaken and a new resource report prepared.   Helium One is presently planning for drilling on the Rukwa project in the second half of 2018.

The fundamentals of helium demand remain strong with Qatari output restricted by the border restrictions in place with Saudi Arabia and the US Federal Reserve still anticipated to close in 2021.  Prices of bulk liquid helium have recently risen and as yet no new material sources of helium have been reported, despite an uptick in exploration efforts.  Helium One also notes that other known projects where helium potential has been identified by other operators are not on the scale of Rukwa, which has close to 100 billion cubic feet ("bcf") of independently estimated helium resource potential in association with inert nitrogen and at helium concentrations up to over 10% by volume. 

Neil Ritson, Solo's Chairman commented:

"We are delighted to see Helium One taking considerable strides forward both corporately and operationally.  Helium One's possible IPO represents a real catalyst in terms of their growing profile and their ability to fund an active near-term work programme in Tanzania, which is expected to see drilling later this year."

Tom Abraham-James, Helium One's Chief Executive added:

"We have been reviewing our long-term funding options for some time and are beginning to focus on an IPO as most suitable for us.  The ASX is a proven capital market and one in which our team has considerable experience.  We would like to thank Solo for their continued support and guidance and look forward to an exciting year ahead for Helium One and all its shareholders."

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.   

For further information:

Solo Oil plc Neil Ritson / Dan Maling	[phone]
Beaumont Cornish Limited Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker Roland Cornish / Rosalind Abrahams	[phone]
Shore Capital Joint Broker Jerry Keen Beaufort Securities Joint Broker Jon Belliss Buchanan (PR) Ben Romney / Chris Judd / Henry Wilson PAC Partners Pty Ltd Australian Corporate Advisor and Broker Tom Fairchild	[phone] [phone] [phone] [phone]

Qualified Person's Statement:  

The information contained in this announcement has been reviewed and approved by Neil Ritson, Chairman and Director for Solo Oil plc, who has over 40 years of relevant experience in geology, resource estimation and the oil and gas industry.  Mr. Ritson is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), an Active Member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) and is a Fellow of the Geological Society of London (BGS).

Notes to Editors

Helium is used in hi-tech applications such as MRI scanners (currently the largest application for helium), semiconductor and optical fibre manufacturing, computer hard-drives, in the nuclear and space industries, and for lifting, such as Lockheed Martin's LMH1 hybrid airship. With around 57% market share, the US is the dominant supplier.  However, the US Bureau of Land Management ("BLM"), which manages the world's largest helium reserve, is auctioning off an increasing percentage of the reserve annually until it falls to 3.0 bcf or until 30 September 2021, when commercial sales will cease.  After that point the BLM will only supply US government users, creating a supply shortage which will force industrial consumers to look for other sources of helium. This transformation of the industry has resulted in recent bulk helium prices as high as US$200 per thousand cubic feet ("mcf").

Further information on helium and the Rukwa project can be found at Helium One's website at www.helium-one.com and at Solo's website www.solooil.co.uk.

Glossary:

A$	Australian Dollars
ASX	Australian Securities Exchange
bcf	billion cubic feet
BLM	US Bureau of Land Management
DHI	a direct indication of subsurface helium gas, analogous to direct hydrocarbon indicators in petroleum exploration
gravity gradiometry	is the measurement of variations in the acceleration due to gravity. The gravity gradient is the spatial rate of change of gravitational acceleration
IPO	initial public offer, or listing
mcf	thousand cubic feet
MRI	magnetic resonance imaging is a technique that uses a magnetic field and radio waves to create detailed images of, for example, the organs and tissues within your body
seismic	the use of sound waves generated by a controlled source to ascertain the nature of the subsurface structure, lithology and fluid content

 

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