Technical Quantification of Tunisian Prospect

RNS Number : 0819P

Upland Resources Limited

15 February 2021

 

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15 February 2021

UPLAND RESOURCES LIMITED

("Upland" or the "Company")

Technical Quantification of First Tunisian Prospect

Upland Resources Limited (LSE: UPL), the oil and gas company actively building a portfolio of attractive upstream assets in proven, mature South-East Asian and Mediterranean basins is pleased to report the following from its activities in the Tunisian Saouaf licence area ('Saouaf Permit') where the Company is currently engaged in a Joint Venture with the Tunisian National Oil Company ('ETAP'):

Highlights:

· A rich array of new plays has been analysed, and fifteen resulting leads and prospects have been identified and conventionally named after Tunisian minerals, following a geological theme.

· The best-defined structure to date is a prospect named 'Pyrite' which is part of a large, isolated carbonate platform developed at Lower Cretaceous - Jurassic level.

· The Pyrite prospect is interpreted to contain 1.1 TCF of recoverable gas (P₅₀ Prospective Resources), with a Chance of Success (CoS) at this stage estimated to be 22%.

· A very large lead, named 'Halite', has been mapped at Sub-Salt level.

· These first preliminary quantitative Tunisian results put Upland in a position to market in-depth findings to prospective farminees for the first time in addition to opening a data room.

· The 2021 work programme aims at reducing the exploration risk and increasing the Chance of Success of the identified leads and prospects, and includes reprocessing of vintage seismic lines, geochemical and geological studies.

Upland CEO Bolhassan Di commented:

"The results of Upland ' s intense technical work thus far are extremely encouraging and a substantial and disciplined work programme is proving its value in providing a rich array of new plays. Beginning with the ' Pyrite '   prospect alone, the most advanced of fifteen leads and prospects thus far, early interpretation estimate this new prospect has the potential to contain around 1.1 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas - a considerably attractive target and one which lends a great deal of technical confidence in the huge prospectivity of our Tunisian Saouaf licence area.

This is not all, we have 'Halite' a potentially very large lead also with strong multidisciplinary technical basis. Our expert technical team has recently been provided with additional vintage seismic data over the Saouaf license and we look forward to see ing the results of the integration of the additional data in this exciting area.

These are the first Tunisian results Upland has had that are based upon in-depth multidisciplinary interpretation of a substantial volume of hard data. These first fruits now allow Upland to open a data room and to begin to formally market the results of our studies to potential farm-in partners.

We are extremely pleased with the numbers regarding the preliminary quantitative assessment of the first prospect matured within the licence. The recent granting of a one-year extension to our Saouaf Prospecting Permit in Tunisia will also allow the Company to progress the work programme in a flexible manner against a background of Covid related travel restrictions. We are looking forward to disclosing further results of the planned quantitative prospectivity and risk assessment work on the Saouaf license."

Details of Technical Interpretation Results

The Company is pleased to report that the multidisciplinary interpretation work done in the past few months on vintage exploration data is giving the first fruits. Fifteen leads have been identified and mapped, spread over a number of different exploration plays, namely the Eocene, Cretaceous, Jurassic and Pre-Salt plays. The leads have been conventionally named after Tunisian minerals, following a geological local theme.

The best-defined structure is a prospect named Pyrite, which is part of a large isolated carbonate platform developed at Lower Cretaceous-Jurassic level. This prospect is defined by thirteen seismic lines of good quality, most of which have been acquired in 2006 or in 2012 and reprocessed in 2013 by a previous operator. Pyrite is a large independent closure being part of a wide ring of carbonate build-ups of Early Cretaceous age (Ressas formation), which has been growing on top of a carbonate platform of Jurassic age (Nara formation). The top seal is represented by the shale-dominated Sidi Khalif and M ' Cherga formations, which cap the carbonate build-up.

The Pyrite prospect is interpreted to contain between 0.7 and 1.6 TCF of recoverable gas (respectively Low=P₉₀ and High=P₁₀ of Prospective Resources) , with a m ost l ikely value of 1.1 TCF ( Best= P₅₀ ), equivalent to approx. 183 MBoe (Table 1).

Table 1: Pyrite prospect (Lower Cretaceous - Jurassic) volumetric assessment.

  Low  Best  High

  ________________________________________________________________________________

GOIP                                                           (TCF)  1.3  2.0  3.1

Prospective Resources                          (TCF)  0.7  1.1  1.6

  Low  Best  High

  ________________________________________________________________________________

GOIP                                                           (as MBoe)  229  346  529

Prospective Resources                            (as MBoe)  119  183  271

The Chance of Success (CoS) of the Pyrite prospect is estimated to be 22%.

Two other structures have been identified close to Pyrite, belonging to the same Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous carbonate play, named respectively Galena and Marcasite.

The interpretation work will continue, also on the base of additional vintage seismic data received from ETAP after the TCM/OCM held on 12 January 2021.

The assessment of the potential of all the leads identified within the license area will continue including the promising structural closures at Sub-Salt level, where four structural highs have been identified so far. Their areal extension ranges between 61 km ² and 196 km ² , with the largest one, named Halite lead, being the best defined on the basis of the seismic interpretation and its prominent Bouguer gravity anomaly.

The 2021 work programme, discussed with ETAP at the Operating Committee Meeting ( ' OCM ' ) held on 12 January 2021, aims at reducing the exploration risk and increasing the Chance of Success of the identified leads and prospects, and includes the reprocessing of specific vintage seismic lines , and multidisciplinary geological and geochemical studies.

-ENDS-

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 on market abuse, and it has been reviewed by Roberto Bencini CGeol, Technical Adviser of Upland Resources Ltd, for the purposes of the Disclosure Standards issued by the London Stock Exchange in October 2018. Mr. Bencini is a Chartered Petroleum Geologist. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, the Geological Society of London and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

GLOSSARY

Boe  Barrel of Oil Equivalent

CoS  Chance of Success

GOIP  Gas Originally In Place

MBoe  Million Boe

OCM  Operating Committee Meeting

TCF  Trillion Cubic Feet

TCM  Technical Committee Meeting

For further information, please contact:

Upland Resources Limited Bolhassan Di, CEO	www.uplandres.com Tel: [phone]
	[e-mail]
Optiva Securities - Broker	www.optivasecurities.com
Jeremy King (Corporate Finance)	Tel: _+44 (0)20 3137 1904 [e-mail]
Christian Dennis (Corporate Broker)	Tel: [phone] [e-mail]

FTI Consulting - Financial PR Ben Brewerton	Tel: [phone] [e-mail]
Christopher Laing	Tel: [phone] ch ristopher.laing @fticonsulting.com
Flowcomms - IR Contact
Sasha Sethi	Tel: [phone] [e-mail]

 

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