Update on Completion of Rockhopper Acquisition

RNS Number : 6455D

United Oil & Gas PLC

20 February 2020

 

United Oil & Gas PLC / Index: AIM / Epic: UOG / Sector: Oil & Gas

20 February 2020

United Oil & Gas PLC

("United" or the "Company")

Update on Completion of Rockhopper Acquisition

United Oil & Gas Plc (AIM: "UOG"), the AIM listed oil and gas exploration and development company, is pleased to announce the satisfaction of the regulatory conditions attached to its proposed acquisition ("Acquisition") of Rockhopper Egypt Pty Ltd., which holds a 22% interest in the producing Abu Sennan field, from Rockhopper Exploration plc.  This follows receipt of the written consents from EGPC and the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of Egypt for the Rockhopper Acquisition on 20 February 2020.

In accordance with the terms of the Rockhopper Acquisition Agreement, United now expects Completion and Admission to occur on 28 February 2020. A further announcement will be provided to the market at that time.

Accordingly, application has been made for the Enlarged Ordinary Share Capital comprising 619,153,969 Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM on 28 February 2020 ("Admission").  On Admission, the Consideration Shares, the Placing Shares and the Subscription Shares will rank pari passu in all respects with Existing Ordinary Shares.

Given the passage of time since the publication of its Admission Document dated 6 December 2019 and in line with regulatory requirements, the Appendix 1 below summarises the additional information which has been subsequently notified to the market by the Company.

Defined terms used in this announcement have the meanings ascribed to them in the Admission Document.

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 ("MAR").

  ENDS

United Oil & Gas Plc (Company)
Brian Larkin, CEO	[e-mail]
Beaumont Cornish Limited (Nominated Adviser)
Roland Cornish and Felicity Geidt	[phone]
Optiva Securities Limited (Joint Broker)
Christian Dennis	[phone]
Cenkos Securities Plc (Joint Broker)
Joe Nally (Corporate Broking) Derrick Lee and Pete Lynch	[phone] [phone]
Murray (PR Advisor)	[phone]
Joe Heron	[e-mail]
St Brides Partners (Financial PR/IR)
Frank Buhagiar and Priit Piip	[phone]

Appendix 1

A summary of the additional information which has been notified by the Company since the publication of its Admission Document dated 6 December 2019

1.  On 12 December 2019 the Company announced the completion of the sale of the North Sea Blocks 15/18d and 15/19b (Licence P2366) to Anasuria Hibiscus UK Limited ('Hibiscus') for a headline consideration of up to US$5million (the 'Sale'). 

The completion of the Sale triggered a payment of US$900,000 to the sellers, United and its minority partner Swift Exploration Ltd. (US$855,000 net to United).  This is in addition to US$100,000 (US$95,000 net to United) previously paid on signing of the Crown SPA, which is summarised at paragraph 12.52 of Part VII of the Admission Document.

2.  On 23 December 2019 the Company announced that at the Company's General Meeting held on that day, all resolutions were duly passed and therefore the acquisition of Rockhopper Egypt Pty Limited was approved by Shareholders.

3.  On 7 January 2020 the Company announced that according to the announcement issued by Po Valley Energy Limited ("Po Valley"), operator of the Podere Gallina Licence, Po Valley received formal technical environmental approval from the Italian Environmental Ministry for the development of the Selva Gas field.  United holds a 20% economic interest in the Podere Gallina licence.

This approval is an important milestone in advance of the decision to grant final approval by Environment Minister decree and the issuing of the required INTESA (intergovernmental agreement) and the final grant of a Production Concession issued by Italy's Economic Development Ministry.

4.  On 14 January 2020 the Company announced that the Production Sharing Agreement on the Walton Morant Basin, Jamaica, operated by Tullow Jamaica Ltd ('Tullow'), and in which United has a 20% interest, has been amended to extend the Initial Exploration Period during which a drill or drop decision is required for a further six months. Tullow is a wholly owned subsidiary of leading independent oil and gas exploration and production company Tullow Oil plc (LSE: TLW).

The Initial Exploration Period was due to expire on the 31^st January 2020, at which point a commitment to drill an exploration well would have been required to move into the next phase of the licence. With the extension to the Initial Exploration Period, the Joint Venture now has until the 31st July 2020 before the drill-or-drop decision is required.

A Joint Venture farm-down effort being led by Tullow (operator and 80% equity holder) is in progress, with the aim of bringing in an additional partner(s) for exploration drilling in 2021 on the Colibri prospect. A number of interested parties are continuing their evaluations of the licence data, and the extension was granted to provide sufficient time for these to be completed. The extension does not require any additional work programme commitments.

5.  On 22 January 2020 the Company announced the following update on the ASH-2 well ('ASH-2' or 'the Well') which was recently drilled at Abu Sennan, current production at Abu Sennan and an update on the timetable for the completion of the Rockhopper acquisition.

ASH-2 well

ASH-2, which was drilled to a total depth of 4,030m in the Alem El Buieb (AEB) Formation, has been completed to allow selective production from both an upper and lower reservoir interval. The upper and lower intervals were tested separately at maximum gross rates of 7,027 and 3,851 bopd respectively. 

ASH-2 came on stream on 2^nd January and has been consistently producing at over 3,000 bopd (660 bopd net to Rockhopper's 22% interest) on a 32/64" choke.  The well will continue to be monitored over the coming months, and during this period, the interpretation of the test data and the longer-term planning for the ASH field-development will continue with the joint venture partners and Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation ('EGPC').  The rig is currently being mobilised for the first well in the 2020 infill programme (El Salmiya 5) which is expected to spud shortly.

Since ASH-2 came on stream, gross production from the Abu Sennan licence has averaged c. 8,000 boepd, which equates to c. 1,760 boepd net to Rockhopper's 22% interest.

In addition, the Company updated the market on the expected timetable for completion of the Acquisition and confirmed that as the original Acquisition Agreement and BP Facility contained backstop dates of 22 January 2020 and the Placing Agreements contained a 31 January 2020 backstop date, the Company, Rockhopper, BP and United's Brokers (Cenkos and Optiva) have extended the backstop dates on all of these agreements until the end of February 2020, which the Company expects will provide sufficient time for approval of the Deed of Assignment and completion of the Acquisition.

 

END

 

 

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