REG - Bahamas Petroleum Co - Trinidad and Tobago: Signing of Goudron EPSC

Australian AgriculturalAnnouncement

30/11/2020 08:13

RNS Number : 8432G
  
Bahamas Petroleum Company PLC
  
30 November 2020
  
 

30 November 2020
Bahamas Petroleum Company plc
("BPC" or the "Company")
 
Trinidad and Tobago:

Signing of Goudron EPSC
 Issuance of Equity & Options
 
BPC, the Caribbean and Atlantic margin focused oil and gas company, with production, appraisal, development and exploration assets across the region, is pleased to advise that the Goudron Enhanced Production Sharing Contract ("ESPC") has been signed. As a consequence, the Company will proceed to issue 35,759,140 new ordinary shares in BPC ("Ordinary Shares"), the issue of which was conditional on signing of the Goudron EPSC.
 
Goudron EPSC
 
The Company has entered into an EPSC in respect of the Goudron Block ("Goudron") in Trinidad and Tobago, with Heritage Petroleum Company Ltd. The EPSC provides the Company with the continuing exclusive right to extract petroleum on Goudron until 30 June 2030. The EPSC was entered into after consent of the Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries was duly obtained.
 
The EPSC replaces the existing 10-year Production Sharing Contract (as amended and extended) in respect of Goudron that was otherwise due to expire at the end of 2020. Signing of the new Goudron EPSC had been anticipated earlier in 2020 but had been delayed as a result of delays to obtaining the necessary consents arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.
 
The terms of the EPSC are largely consistent with the terms that previously prevailed under the existing Goudron Production Sharing Contract.
 
Production from Goudron currently accounts for approximately 40% of BPC's baseline daily production in Trinidad and Tobago.
 
Issuance of new shares and options
 
On 7 August 2020, in conjunction with the completion of the merger with Columbus Energy Resources Plc ("Columbus"), BPC advised that until such time as the Goudron EPSC was entered into, BPC and Columbus's management had agreed to delay the issuance of 25,562,167 new Ordinary Shares due to various members of Columbus's management pursuant to their respective settlement and termination arrangements (8,579,079 of these to be issued to Leo Koot). It was agreed that these new BPC ordinary shares would be issued on entering into the Goudron EPSC.
 
On 15 October 2020, the Company advised that the Board's Remuneration Committee had resolved to make a number of option awards and bonus payments conditional on entering into the Goudron EPSC. These were an award of 6,250,000 Series B Options and a US$200,000 bonus (payable in the form of ordinary shares) to the Company's CEO, and an award of 6,250,000 Series B Options and a US$200,000 bonus (payable in the form of Ordinary Shares) to a member of the Company's senior management. The new Ordinary Shares to be issued in satisfaction of these previously agreed bonus payments to each of the CEO and the member of senior management is 5,098,486 shares (the bonus award shares being issued at 2.95p (3.92 cents), representing the volume weighted average share price for the 20 trading days prior to execution of the Goudron EPSC).
 
Given that the Goudron EPSC has now been entered into, all of these new Ordinary Shares and options, as previously advised, will now be issued.
 
Accordingly, on Admission, Simon Potter, CEO of the Company, and Leo Koot, a Non-Executive Director of the Company, will be interested in 81,217,700 and 28,093,156 Ordinary Shares respectively, representing approximately 2.0% and 0.7% of the Company's then enlarged issued share capital. Mr Potter is interested in 20,000,000 Series A Options, 27,500,000 Series B Options and 25,000,000 Series C Options.
 
Total Voting Rights
 
Application will be made for a total of 35,759,140 new ordinary shares to be admitted to trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange ("AIM") and it is expected that admission will take place and trading in the shares will commence from 8.00 a.m. on or around 4 December 2020 ("Admission"). Upon Admission, the Company's issued share capital will consist of 4,090,548,549 Ordinary Shares, with each Ordinary Share carrying the right to one vote. The Company does not hold any Ordinary Shares in treasury. This figure of 4,090,548,549 Ordinary Shares may therefore be used by shareholders in the Company, as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change in their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.
 
Regulatory Statements
 
The information communicated in this announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014.
 
 
For further information, please contact:
 



Bahamas Petroleum Company plc
Simon Potter, Chief Executive Officer


Tel: +44 (0) 1624 647 882




Strand Hanson Limited - Nomad
Rory Murphy / James Spinney / Jack Botros


Tel: +44 (0) 20 7409 3494




Shore Capital Stockbrokers Limited - Joint Broker
Jerry Keen / Toby Gibbs
 


Tel: +44 (0) 207 408 4090




Investec Bank Plc - Joint Broker
Chris Sim / Rahul Sharma


Tel: +44 (0) 207 597 5970




CAMARCO
Billy Clegg / James Crothers / Hugo Liddy


 Tel: +44 (0) 020 3757 4980



 
Notes to Editors
 
BPC is a Caribbean and Atlantic margin focused oil and gas company, with a range of exploration, appraisal, development and production assets and licences, located offshore in the waters of The Bahamas and Uruguay, and onshore in Trinidad and Tobago, and Suriname. BPC is currently on-track for drilling an initial exploration well in The Bahamas, Perseverance #1, in late 2020 / early 2021, with the well targeting recoverable P50 prospective oil resources of 0.77 billion barrels, with an upside of 1.44 billion barrels. In Trinidad and Tobago, BPC has five producing fields, two appraisal / development projects and a prospective exploration portfolio in the South West Peninsula. BPC's exploration licence in Uruguay is highly prospective, with a potential resource of 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent. In Suriname, BPC has an onshore appraisal / development project.
 
BPC is listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.  www.bpcplc.com
 
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