Annulment of Italy’s Plan of Areas Update

Prospex Energy PLC

19 June 2024

 

Prospex Energy PLC / Index: AIM / Epic: PXEN / Sector: Oil and Gas

19 June 2024

Prospex Energy PLC

("Prospex" or the "Company")

Annulment of Italy's Plan of Areas

Accepted by Italian Ministry of Environment and Energy Security

Prospex Energy PLC (AIM: PXEN), the AIM quoted investment company focused on European gas and power projects, is pleased to note the announcement released by Po Valley Energy Limited ("Po Valley Energy") (ASX: PVE) confirming that the annulment of the Plan of Areas (which limited the extent of hydrocarbon prospecting, exploration and production in Italy) has not been appealed by the Italian Ministry of Environment and Energy Security.

Po Valley Operations Pty Limited ("PVO"), a wholly owned subsidiary of PVE is the operator of the Selva Malvezzi production concession, which has a 63% working interest, while Prospex has the remaining 37% working interest.

The announcement is set out below without material changes.

Start of Po Valley Energy Ltd announcement

19 June 2024

Po Valley Energy Ltd (ASX:PVE)

PVE Update on Italy's Plan of Areas

By means of an update since our Chairman, Kevin Bailey, addressed shareholders at our Annual General Meeting on 28 May 2024, we would like to inform the market that the annulment of the Plan of Areas (which limited the extent of hydrocarbon prospecting, exploration and production in Italy) has not been appealed by the Italian Ministry of Environment and Energy Security.

While Po Valley's licence portfolio was fortunately not materially affected by the Plan of Areas as other companies had been, the Ministry's decision not to appeal may be interpreted as another sign of the current Government's commitment to promote and enable more domestic gas production to address the serious energy security challenges which Italy, and more broadly Europe, are facing. We are cautiously optimistic the Government's policy will enable Po Valley to realise maximum value from its portfolio of natural gas fields, whilst helping improve Italy's energy security.

The Company continues to progress the work programme, including most imminently the design, planning and permitting of the 3D seismic campaign on the Selva Malvezzi Production Concession, as outlined at the Annual General Meeting and looks forward to updating the market further in due course.

This announcement was approved for release by the Board of Directors of Po Valley Energy Limited

End of Po Valley announcement

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("MAR") and is disclosed in accordance with the Company's obligations under Article 17 of MAR.

* * ENDS * *

For further information visit www.prospex.energy or contact the following:

Mark Routh	Prospex Energy PLC	Tel: [phone]
Ritchie Balmer Rory Murphy	Strand Hanson Limited	Tel: [phone]
Andrew Monk (Corporate Broking) Andrew Raca / Alex Cabral (Corporate Finance)	VSA Capital Limited	Tel: [phone]
Ana Ribeiro / Charlotte Page	St Brides Partners Limited	Tel: [phone]

Notes

Prospex Energy PLC is an AIM quoted investment company focused on high impact onshore and shallow offshore European opportunities with short timelines to production.  The Company's strategy is to acquire undervalued projects with multiple, tangible value trigger points that can be realised within 12 months of acquisition and then applying low-cost re-evaluation techniques to identify and de-risk prospects.  The Company will rapidly scale up gas production in the short term to generate internal revenues that can then be deployed to develop the asset base and increase production further.

About Selva:

The Selva Malvezzi Production Concession is in the Po Valley region of northern Italy.  The concession contains the Selva gas-field as well as exciting exploration and development opportunities.  The Podere Maiar-1 well at Selva was completed in December 2017 and successfully found a commercial gas accumulation up-dip of the previous wells on the Selva field.  The Company has a 37% working interest in the Production Concession held via Prospex's two wholly owned subsidiaries, PXOG Marshall Ltd (17% of the Licence) and UOG Italia Srl (20% of the Licence).

The Selva Malvezzi Production Concession holds independently verified 2P gross proven reserves of 13.4 Bcf (5.0 Bcf net to Prospex at 37% WI) in Selva, gross Contingent 2C Resources of 14.1 Bcf (5.2 Bcf net) and a further 88.2 Bcf of gross Best Estimate Prospective Resources (un-risked) (32.6 Bcf net).^[1]

An independent Competent Person's Report of the Podere Gallina Licence which was converted into the Selva Malvezzi Production Concession at first gas in July 2023, was prepared by CGG Services (UK) Limited in July 2022 on behalf of the joint venture.^[1] It attributed a total of 379 MMscm (13.4 Bcf) gross 2P reserves for the Selva redevelopment project.

References:

[1] Source: "Competent Person's Report Podere Gallina Licence, Italy" prepared by CGG Services (UK) Limited in July 2022 : https://bit.ly/44VF02A

Glossary:

scm                        Standard cubic metres

scm/d                   Standard cubic metres per day

MMscm               Million standard cubic metres

Bcf                        Billion standard cubic feet

MMscfd               million standard cubic feet per day

MWh                     Mega Watt hour

TTF                       The 'Title Transfer Facility' - a virtual trading point for natural gas in the Netherlands.

 

END