REG - Pennpetro Energy PLC - Farm-In to Saouaf Permit, Tunisia & Share Issuance

Pennpetro EnergyAnnouncement

21/07/2022 07:00

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
http://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20220721:nRSU2175Ta&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 2175T  Pennpetro Energy PLC  21 July 2022

 

 

 

 

 

NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART IN OR INTO
THE UNITED STATES, AUSTRALIA, CANADA, OR JAPAN

 

This announcement is not an offer for sale, or a solicitation of an offer to
acquire, securities in any jurisdiction, including in or into the United
States, Canada, Australia, or Japan. Neither this announcement nor any part
of it shall form the basis of or be relied on in connection with or act as an
inducement to enter into any contract or commitment whatsoever.

 

 

Pennpetro Energy PLC

("Pennpetro" or the "Group")

 

Farm-In to Saouaf Permit, Tunisia and Share Issuance

 

London, 21 July 2022 - Pennpetro, an independent oil and gas company focusing
on development of the Gonzales Oil Field in Texas, USA, today announces that,
through its wholly owned subsidiary enterprise, Nobel Petroleum USA Inc
("NPUSA"), the Group has signed a Farmout Agreement ("Agreement") with Upland
(Saouaf) Limited ("Upland Saouaf"),an Upland Resources Limited ("Upland")
subsidiary, for a farm-in ("Farm-In") to its Saouaf permit area, Tunisia
("Saouaf Permit"), held in joint venture with the Tunisian state oil company,
Enterprise Tunisienne d'Activités Pétroliéres ("ETAP").  Pennpetro had
earlier announced the signing of a Heads of Terms agreement with Upland on 16
March 2022.

 

Farm-In

 

NPUSA will farm-in for an 80% working interest and assume operatorship,
subject to ETAP approval. NPUSA and Upland will jointly seek from the Tunisian
authorities a one-year extension ("Extension") to the Saouaf Permit to allow
sufficient time to undertake the current prospective work programme which
expires on 23 December 2022 ("Expiry Date"), consisting of an obligation to
acquire 300 km of new 2D seismic data and reprocessing some existing 2D
seismic data. Extension negotiations have already been initiated referencing
the Hydrocarbon Code of Tunisia.

 

NPUSA will be appointed as the Operator for the Saouaf Permit and a formal
Operating Agreement will be executed. The working interests of NPUSA and
Upland Saouaf (interest carried by NPUSA) up to the Expiry Date are as
follows:

 

·      Nobel Petroleum USA, Inc.                  80%

·      Upland Saouaf
                                 20%

 

The Saouaf Permit can, under its priority rights, be converted into an
exploration permit at the Expiry Date. In the three years following that
Expiry Date, the exploration work programme requires the acquisition of 150 km
of 2D seismic and the drilling of one exploration well to reach the M'cherga
formation or equivalent to a minimum depth of 1500m.

 

Upon the conversion to the Exploration Permit, the working interests will be
as follows:

 

·      Nobel Petroleum USA, Inc.                  40%

·
ETAP
             50%

·      Upland Saouaf
                        10%

 

 

Upland Saouaf has been granted an arrangement whereby they may purchase up to
25% of the NPUSA Exploration Permit working interest on certain terms, subject
to the approvals of the Tunisian authorities and subject to making a cash
payment to Pennpetro of a 250% premium of the work programme funds expended by
NPUSA.

 

Subject to Extension, Pennpetro has agreed to reimburse Upland for 80% of its
prior sunk costs in Tunisia, amounting to £310,225.  This will be paid
through the issue of fully paid ordinary shares in Pennpetro ranking pari
passu with other ordinary shares in Pennpetro at a deemed value of the higher
of either £0.28 each or 10% discount to the closing mid-market pricing of the
Company's shares on the date of the Company's RNS confirming the Extension.

 

Tom Evans, CEO of Pennpetro Energy plc, commented:

 

"We are excited to finalize our partnership with Upland in their Tunisian
venture with the execution of this farm-in. Upland has done a lot of excellent
technical and commercial work to this point and have built a very good
relationship with the Tunisian authorities. There is a critical need for
additional gas and blue hydrogen supplies to Europe, especially given that the
Saouaf permit area is situated under the existing TransMed gas pipeline, which
feeds gas from Algeria to Italy and has spare capacity.

 

The Sauoaf permit area hosts 10 gas prospects and leads with up to 15.2
trillion cubic feet gross potential in multiple targets. The risked resource,
independently audited by highly respected third-party engineers, is 420
billion cubic feet of gas plus 1.6 million barrels of oil equivalent net to
Pennpetro. The Pyrite prospect offers an opportunity to open up an exciting
new play in the area.

 

Andy Clifford, President of our wholly owned subsidiary, Nobel Petroleum USA
Inc., is excited for Nobel to assume operatorship of the permit and to carry
on the good work done by the Upland team. He is exceptionally well qualified
to oversee the future work programme, having over 43 years of worldwide
industry experience, including leading negotiating efforts in North Africa and
oil discoveries in Algeria for major oil companies.

 

Pennpetro and Nobel are evaluating several other Gulf Coast opportunities that
will provide synergies with our ongoing Gonzales development, which we remain
very excited about and which we hope to revitalize by the end of this year."

 

Share Issuance

 

The Company has issued 952,268 shares to its $20 million facility provider GEM
Yield Bahamas in respect of agreed fees. Application will be made for
admission of the Issued Shares to the standard listing segment of the Official
List and for admission to trading on the London Stock Exchange's Main Market
for listed securities. It is expected that admission will take place at 8.00am
on 26 July 2022 and that dealings in such shares will commence at the same
time.

 

Total Voting Rights

 

Following the issuance of the Shares, the Company's issued share capital will
comprise 84,404,374 ordinary shares of £0.01 each. The total number of voting
rights in the Company following the issuance of Shares will be 84,404,374.
This figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the
calculations by which they determine if they are required to notify their
interests in, or a change to their interest in, the share capital of the
Company under the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules of the Financial
Conduct Authority.

 

-ENDS-

 

This announcement contains inside information within the meaning of Article
7(1) of (i) Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 of the European Parliament and of the
Council of 16 April 2014, as amended (the "EU Market Abuse Regulation") and
(ii) the EU Market Abuse Regulation as it forms part of United Kingdom
domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.

 

 

Enquiries

Pennpetro Energy plc
tme@pennpetroenergy.co.uk

Thomas Evans

 

Peterhouse Capital Limited

Lucy Williams
 
            + 44 (0) 20 7469 0930

Duncan Vasey
 
            + 44 (0) 20 7220 9797

 

Instinctif Partners
 
pennpetro@instinctif.com

Galyna Kulachek
      +44 (0) 20 7457 2020

Sarah Hourahane

 

NOTES TO EDITORS

 

Pennpetro Energy is an independent oil and gas company focusing on production
in the Gonzales Oil Field in Texas, USA. Shares in the company were admitted
to the Official List of the London Stock Exchange by way of a Standard Listing
on 21 December 2017.

 

Further information on the Company can be found at www.pennpetroenergy.co.uk
(http://www.pennpetroenergy.co.uk)

 

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  MSCRMMMTMTITTLT