Result of General Meeting, Equity Issue and TVR

RNS Number : 5680C

Prospex Energy PLC

23 February 2022

 

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

23 February 2022

Prospex Energy PLC

('Prospex' or the 'Company')

Result of the General Meeting, Equity Issue and TVR

Prospex Energy PLC, the AIM quoted investment company focused on European gas and power projects, is pleased to announce that both resolutions at today's General Meeting were passed.

As a result, a total of 70,137,143 new Ordinary Shares will be issued pursuant to the Placing, Subscription and the Broker Option announced on 9 February 2022, which will raise £2.455 million before costs.

Admission to Trading

The Company has applied to the London Stock Exchange for admission of 70,137,143 new Ordinary Shares to trading on AIM ('Admission').  Admission is expected to occur on or around 24 February 2022.  On 23 February 2022 there are 177,310,283 Ordinary Shares in issue and 7,361 shares held in Treasury.  Following Admission, there will be 247,447,426 Ordinary Shares in issue.  Deducting the 7,361 held in Treasury there will accordingly be 247,440,065 Ordinary Shares that may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in the Company under the FCA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

Use of Funds

Proceeds of the fundraising will be used to:

· acquire 20% of the Selva Malvezzi Field in Italy, more than doubling the company's current holding from 17% to 37%, estimated to add 2.7 billion cubic feet ("Bcf") of 2P gas reserves to Prospex's portfolio.  This proposed acquisition was announced on 10 August 2021 which is expected to complete in April 2022.

· Fund the development costs of the Selva project to first gas expected in Q1 2023

The Italian Ministry of Ecological Transition has informed the operator of the Podere Gallina licence that subject to the final consultation with the local regulators and stakeholders, the production concession can be awarded.  This process is expected to complete in May 2022.

Mark Routh, Prospex's CEO, commented:

"Following this Placing, Subscription and Broker Option, which has brought us to a total of £2.455 million, Prospex is now in a strong position to realise our near-term growth objectives; specifically, the completion of the acquisition of the 20% working interest in the Selva Malvezzi field in Italy in April 2022.  With the news that the Italian authorities are in the final stages of approving the production concession hopefully by May 2022, we can now progress to the development phase on the asset with first gas still targeted by Q1 2023."

"Additionally, our work on the infill well drilling campaign on the El Romeral concession in Spain continues to offer considerable upside to shareholders and we are currently waiting on permits to drill the first three infill wells.  As shareholders will be aware, the first two wells to be drilled on two proven gas-bearing structures are expected to bring the generation utilisation of the plant up to full capacity."

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.

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

Mark Routh	Prospex Energy PLC	Tel: [phone]
Rory Murphy Ritchie Balmer	Strand Hanson Limited	Tel: [phone]
Colin Rowbury Jon Belliss	Novum Securities Limited	Tel: [phone]
Duncan Vasey Lucy Williams	Peterhouse Capital Limited	Tel: [phone]
Susie Geliher Ana Ribeiro	St Brides Partners Ltd	Tel: [phone]

Notes

Prospex Energy PLC is an AIM quoted investment company focussed 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 Podere Gallina Licence is in the Po Valley region of Italy in the province of Bologna and covers an area of 506 square kilometres.  The licence contains the currently shut‑in Selva Malvezzi gas-field as well as exciting exploration opportunities.  The Podere Maiar-1 well was completed in December 2017 and successfully found a commercial gas accumulation up-dip of the previous wells on the Selva field.  The well is suspended and is awaiting permissions to connect it to the local gas grid for gas export.  The Company currently has as 17% working interest in the Podere Gallina licence.  The Company announced on 10 August 2021 the conditional acquisition of a further 20% of the Podere Gallina licence from UOG.  Subject to securing funding, Prospex is set to increase its working interest to 37% in Q2 2022.

Subject to the award of the Production Concession by the Italian authorities, expected in May 2022, first gas is targeted for Q1 2023.

The Podere Gallina Licence holds independently verified 2P gross reserves of 13.4 Bcf (5.0 Bcf net to Prospex at 37% WI), gross Contingent 2C Resources of 14.1 Bcf (5.2 Bcf net) and a further 91.5 Bcf of gross Best Estimate Prospective Resources (33.9 Bcf net).

( Source : CGG Services (UK) Limited Competent Persons Report - January 2019   https://bit.ly/3nZNfYf ).

About El Romeral and Tarba

The El Romeral gas and power project in Spain, with gas production wells supplying gas to an 8.1MW power plant near Carmona in Southern Spain is owned and operated by Tarba Energía ("Tarba").  Prospex owns a 49.9% working interest in the El Romeral project via Tarba.  Tarba sells electricity generated from the plant on the spot market in Spain.  Current spot market prices have reached all-time highs in recent months.

Prospex also owns a 15% working interest in the large scale Tesorillo gas project in southern Spain, which has the potential to hold gross un-risked Prospective Resources of 831 Bcf of gas (Best Estimate), with upside in excess of 2 Tcf.

The Tesorillo permit is temporarily suspended, awaiting Ministry resolution and reinstatement as production licence.  The Tesorillo permit contains the Almarchal-1 gas discovery well (drilled in 1957) which logged 212m of net gas pay.  Multiple drill stem tests flowed gas to surface.

Operated by Tarba (85% Warrego Energy (ASX:WGO) and 15% Prospex).  Prospex has an option to increase to 49.9% for €1,725,000 ahead of drilling a well.

The updated Corporate Presentation for Q1-2022 is available on the Company's website at https://bit.ly/3G6JtCm .

 

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