15th Jun 2006 10:00
Soco International PLC15 June 2006 SOCO INTERNATIONAL PLC ("SOCO" or "the Group") AGM Statement At the SOCO AGM held today the following statement was made by the Group: "SOCO has had an extremely successful year, both financially and operationally. The Group favourably rebalanced its project portfolio and achieved very robustfinancial results for 2005. The innovative and highly successful convertiblebond issue carried out in May enabled the Group to raise US$250 million thusensuring that SOCO has the financial leverage to develop its high quality assetbase. Operationally SOCO has achieved significant exploration success both in Vietnamand Yemen. In Vietnam, SOCO's success with the drill bit was outstanding, with astring of positive drilling results on both Block 16-1 and Block 09-2, thelatter leading the Group and its partners to declare commerciality on the Ca NguVang field. A plan for development is now being progressed with first productionbeing targeted for the second half of 2007. Following a number of impressive drilling results on the Te Giac Trang field onBlock 16-1, the Group believes a Declaration of Commerciality will come in thenear future. While the initial well on the Te Giac Vang structure, some 40kilometres south of the Te Giac Trang discovery, did not lead to a commercialsuccess, the potential of this structure remains significant. Indeed, thepotential of the entire clastics fairway, the boundaries of which are stillbeing delineated, is tremendous. In Yemen three rigs are in place and will continue operating throughout theyear. Expansion of facilities and the implementation of a water injectionprogramme and further infill drilling in the Kharir field will lead to an upliftin production throughout the year which now stands at approximately 45,000 BOPDversus a 2005 year average of 32,937 BOPD. Elsewhere, development efforts in Thailand and the commencement of the 3Dseismic programme in Congo Brazzaville are both expected to get underway in thesecond half of this year. In summary, the outlook for SOCO is extremely promising, with production assetsto take advantage of the favourable oil price, near term development prospectsto add additional reserves and exciting remaining exploration potential." 15 June 2006 ENQUIRIES: SOCO International plcRoger Cagle Deputy Chief Executive and Tel: 020 7747 2000 Chief Financial Officer Pelham Public RelationsJames Henderson Tel: 020 7743 6673Alisdair Haythornthwaite Tel: 020 7743 6676 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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