Successful Acquisition of Leases

Pantheon Resources PLC

14 December 2023

 

14 December 2023

Pantheon Resources plc

Successful Acquisition of Leases over Updip Kodiak and Ahpun's Eastern Potential

Pantheon Resources plc (AIM: PANR) ("Pantheon" or the "Company"), the oil and gas company with a 100% working interest in the Kodiak and Ahpun projects, collectively spanning c. 193,000 contiguous acres in close proximity to pipeline and transportation infrastructure on Alaska's North Slope, is pleased to finally share the complete results of its multiyear leasing programme.

Pantheon has been awarded 66,240 acres on the North Slope covering:

·    substantially all of the anticipated remaining conventional reservoir potential in the Kodiak Field - pay zone quality is expected to improve as the reservoir become shallower to the north and west of the existing leases. The ultimate resource classification of the 43,200 new acres will be determined following reviews with Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc. ("NSAI") and SLB.

·    the potential eastern extent of the Ahpun Field (including what is prognosed to be higher quality, shallower reservoirs) covered by the 23,040 acres that could be accessed from the West side of the Sag River using current technologies. The Company believes these volumes would initially meet the definition of Prospective Resources and only be recognisable as Contingent Resources (and eventually Reserves) once well penetrations have confirmed producible hydrocarbons in the identified Shelf Margin horizons.

Pantheon's winning bids averaged $31.83 per acre including fees. When the leases are officially awarded by the State of Alaska, estimated to be in 4 to 6 months' time, they will come with a 10-year initial term, an annual rental of $10 per acre, and royalty rates of 16.67% (20 leases, 28,800 acres) and 12.5% (26 leases, 37,440 acres). The Company has paid an initial deposit to the State of Alaska equivalent to 20% of the bid costs with the remainder payable on official award along with the first year rentals.

Pantheon's Technical Director, Bob Rosenthal, said: "This is an important result, securing what we expect to be the highest quality areas of the Kodiak and Ahpun Fields at the shallowest depths, and protecting the development schedules for Ahpun and Kodiak by covering the full fields to be included in our requests for development consents from the State of Alaska. Our focus remains on the development of Ahpun with FID planned by the end of 2025 and appraisal of the full potential of Kodiak to support its FID in 2028."

Finance Director, Justin Hondris, added: "In the past, we have had to strike a balance between prioritising investments in our existing lease estate and capturing the full extent of our two world class development assets. The soon to be publicly released proprietary 3D seismic data risked opening the area up to competitors before the next lease sale and Pantheon therefore chose to act this year."

New Lease Volumetric Estimates

The Company owns 100% Working Interest ("W.I.") in all leases, which are subject to State Royalties of approximately 15% across the portfolio resulting in a Net Revenue Interest ("NRI") after deducting royalties of approximately 85%. The Company prepared preliminary estimates of the gross and net Liquid Hydrocarbons in Place ("OIP") and recoverable volumes described, for the time being, as Technically Recoverable Resources ("TRR") (see glossary of terms) for the new acreage to support the lease bids and these are shown in the table below:

OIP	Gross OIP			Net OIP1
Quantities in mmbbls	Low Estimate	Best Estimate	High Estimate	Low Estimate	Best Estimate	High Estimate	COS3
Western Kodiak Leases	-	7,866	11,508	-	6,474	9,471	>90%
Eastern Ahpun Leases	2,025	2,243	2,470	1,668	1,847	2,034	70%
Totals	-	10,109	13,978		8,321	11,505
TRR2	Gross Recoverable			Net Recoverable1
Quantities in mmbbls	Low Estimate	Best Estimate	High Estimate	Low Estimate	Best Estimate	High Estimate	COS3
Western Kodiak Leases	-	629	1,726	-	517	1,420	>90%
Eastern Ahpun Leases	280	367	478	242	317	413	70%
Totals4	-	996	2,204		834	1,833

¹ Estimated based on 16.67% State royalty for Western Kodiak Leases and 12.5% State royalty for the Eastern Ahpun Leases. All subject to 1 % Overriding Royalty Interest ("ORRI") in favour of eSeis.

² Company estimates of TRR are based on 8% recovery factor ("RF") in tight formations and up to 20% in formations exceeding the conventional threshold. No resources are attributed to natural gas because there is currently no market on the North Slope and any gas not used for fuel is modelled to be reinjected into the reservoir.

NGL and Condensates stripped from the production stream are not explicitly recognised within these figures pending GeoMark reservoir fluid composition analysis. Until GeoMark's analysis is received, the basis of estimation is consistent with the SLB reservoir modelling report released on 8^th December, 2022.

³ COS is the Geological Chance of Success - the probability that hydrocarbons will be encountered and capable of flowing to surface. The target formations in the western leases covering the extension of the Kodiak field are the same horizons encountered in the Pipeline State, Talitha-A and Theta West-1 wells, resulting in a high COS. The eastern Ahpun leases exhibit the seismic characteristics indicating hydrocarbon pay but cannot be confirmed until penetrated by a well.

⁴ The Kodiak volumes have been estimated deterministically and the Ahpun volumes have been estimated probabilistically. The totals do not represent the statistical addition of these estimates.

The above quantities are solely attributable to the new leases.

Pantheon is working with NSAI and SLB to re-evaluate the entire portfolio in light of the acreage additions and the fluid composition analysis by GeoMark. The Company is targeting NSAI to provide an updated Independent Expert Report ("IER") on Kodiak in Q1 2024 and an IER on Ahpun in Q2 2024.

Kodiak Area Leases

Last year, Pantheon successfully bid for the acreage to the North of the Theta West-1 well that is expected to contain substantial recoverable oil (included in August 2023's NSAI IER). However, the Company's financial situation prevented it from acquiring all of the acreage that it expected to contain the best quality resources. In recent Stock Exchange Announcements and webinars, the Company has shared analysis supporting the improvement in reservoir quality and the increasing proportion of conventional hydrocarbon pay expected to be confirmed in future appraisal wells. However, for obvious commercial reasons, it was not appropriate for management to publish estimates of the full potential of the Kodiak field outside of the areas under lease. This is no longer a concern.

Ahpun Area Leases

Pantheon has long recognised the resource potential of the northerly progradations of the shelf margin deltaic horizons extending beyond the current lease holding to the east (beyond the Dalton Highway and Sag River). In fact, the Company once held this acreage but the logistical challenges of operating on the east side of a major river system away from the export and transport infrastructure resulted in a decision to relinquish the acreage for financial reasons until there was a development plan.

The Company's new leases capture as much of this easterly potential in the Ahpun field as Pantheon estimates can be commercially produced at industrial scale given current technology. Pantheon management's confidence (Geological Chance of Success, 70%) that there are recoverable volumes is based on three factors resulting from the recent appraisal programme:

1.    Proven ability to identify hydrocarbon bearing zones from seismic, successfully demonstrated in its recent drilling campaigns including Talitha-A, Theta West-1 and Alkaid-2. The additional progradations of the shelf margin horizons have a very clear hydrocarbon signature on seismic.

2.    Each additional cycle of the shelf margin system has a reduced Dmax and the best quality expression of these reservoirs is seen in the horizons deposited from the Southwest to the Northeast (as illustrated by the SMD-B reservoir exhibiting permeabilities at least two orders of magnitude higher than the Alkaid ZOI). Indeed, the next cycles may exhibit better quality conventional reservoir parameters.

3.    The Company's assessment of commercially producible light oil in the shelf margin horizon at Alkaid-2.

The successful acquisition of 66,240 acres via this lease sale is expected to deliver a substantial resource upgrade for Pantheon. The new acreage to the west secures the entirety of the best predicted reservoir in Kodiak in a structurally higher location where the Company expects continued improvement in reservoir parameters, even to a point where they meet the threshold to be recognised as conventional. To the east, the acreage secures the accessible extent (and projected best quality potential reservoirs) of Ahpun that avoids placing infrastructure across the Sag River, with all its attendant costs. With the 2014 3D Seismic publicly available before the next anticipated lease sale, the Company has removed the risk that a competitor would find this acreage attractive - particularly if the exploration programme east of the Sag River yields successful results this winter.

Investor Presentation

Pantheon will provide an update on the new lease acquisition and the updip, conventional resources in the Kodiak Field and eastern extent of the Ahpun Field via Investor Meet Company on Thursday 14^th December 2023, at 5:00pm GMT.

The presentation is open to all existing and potential shareholders. Registration details can be accessed at: https://www.investormeetcompany.com/pantheon-resources-plc/register-investor  

Questions can be submitted pre-event via your Investor Meet Company dashboard up until 9am the day before the meeting or at any time during the live presentation.

For regulatory and compliance reasons, Pantheon will not engage on social media and any questions that investors or others may have outside of a scheduled webinar should be addressed to [e-mail] where your questions will be responded to in a timely manner.

-ENDS-

Further information, please contact:

Pantheon Resources plc	[phone]
David Hobbs, Executive Chairman Jay Cheatham, CEO
Justin Hondris, Director, Finance and Corporate Development
Canaccord Genuity plc (Nominated Adviser and broker)
Henry Fitzgerald-O'Connor James Asensio Ana Ercegovic	[phone]
BlytheRay
Tim Blythe Megan Ray Matthew Bowld	[phone]

In accordance with the AIM Rules - Note for Mining and Oil & Gas Companies - June 2009, the information contained in this announcement has been reviewed and signed off by David Hobbs, a qualified Petroleum Engineer, who has nearly 40 years' relevant experience within the sector and is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers.

The information contained within this Announcement is deemed by Pantheon Resources PLC to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 as it forms part of UK law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("MAR").

The volumetric assessments were prepared by management in accordance with the definitions and guidelines set out in the 2018 Petroleum Resources Management System approved by the Society of Petroleum Engineers.

Notes to Editors

Pantheon Resources plc is an AIM listed Oil & Gas company focused on developing the Ahpun and Kodiak fields located on state land on the Alaska North Slope ("ANS"), onshore USA where, following issue of the new leases, it will have a 100% working interest in c. 259,000 acres. Certified contingent resources attributable to these projects exceeds 1 billion barrels of marketable liquids, located adjacent to Alaska's Trans Alaska Pipeline System ("TAPS").

Pantheon's stated objective is to demonstrate sustainable market recognition of a value of $5-$10/bbl of recoverable resources by end 2028. This will require targeting Final Investment Decision ("FID") on the Ahpun field by the end of 2025, building production to 20,000 barrels per day of marketable liquids into the TAPS main oil line, and applying the resultant cashflows to support the FID on the Kodiak field by the end of 2028.

A major differentiator to other ANS projects is the close proximity to existing roads and pipelines which offers a significant competitive advantage to Pantheon, allowing for materially lower infrastructure costs and the ability to support the development with a significantly lower pre-cashflow funding requirement than is typical in Alaska.

The Company's project portfolio has been endorsed by world renowned experts. Netherland, Sewell & Associates ("NSAI") estimate a 2C contingent recoverable resource in the Kodiak project that total 962.5 million barrels of marketable liquids and 4,465 billion cubic feet of natural gas. NSAI is currently working on estimates for the Ahpun Field.  

Glossary

ANS - Alaska North Slope

Contingent Resources

Those quantities of petroleum which are estimated, on a given date, to be potentially recoverable from known accumulations, but which are not currently considered to be commercially recoverable.

IER - Independent Expert Report

FID - Final Investment Decision

OIP - Liquid Hydrocarbons in Place

In the reservoir, the liquids in place consist of a mix of hydrocarbons that may be produced and separated at surface into crude oil, condensate and natural gas liquids,

ORRI - Overriding Royalty Interest

An undivided interest in a mineral lease giving the holder the right to a proportional share (receive revenue) of the sale of oil and gas produced. The ORRI is carved out of the working interest or lease.

NSAI - Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc.

NRI - Net Revenue Interest

The portion of production remaining after deducting related burdens (such as royalties payable to the State of Alaska and overriding royalties) from any working interest held.

Prospective Resources

Those quantities of petroleum which are estimated, on a given date, to be potentially recoverable from undiscovered accumulations.

RF - Recovery Factor

The proportion of hydrocarbon initially in place that is recoverable, normally expressed as a percentage.

TAPS - Trans Alaska Pipeline System

TRR - Technically Recoverable Resources

Those quantities of petroleum producible using currently available technology and industry practices, regardless of commercial considerations.

W.I. - Working Interest

The percentage of ownership in a lease that gives the working interest owner the right to explore, drill, and produce oil and gas. The investor is responsible for all costs incurred to explore, develop, and conduct production operations.

 

END