5th May 2009 07:00
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For immediate release |
5 May 2009 |
Rift Oil Plc
Rift Oil Agrees Farm-In Deal with Multi-National Oil Company
Rift Oil Plc announces that It has reached an agreement with a major multi-national oil company to fund the drilling of up to four wells and 100km of seismic on its PPL235 licence in Papua New Guinea. Further details will be released upon signature of the formal documents. The offer is subject to documentation, various Government approvals and the signing of definitive farm-in and joint operating agreements.
The farm-in offer was the most preferred of a number of offers to emerge from a formal process initiated late last year to find an industry partner to assist the Company to prove additional reserves following its discoveries in Douglas 1 and PukPuk 1. Rift also wanted to find a partner who had a clear idea of the route to commercialisation. Rift has retained 100% of the rights to the adjoining licence PPL261 which we regard as highly prospective.
Chairman Ian Gowrie-Smith said:
"We are delighted to have agreed a farm-in on PPL 235 with a partner which we believe is well suited to meet the financial, technical and commercial challenges of the discoveries we have made on this licence. Contingent resource estimates put the potential on PPL235 as in excess of 2 trillion cubic feet. With costs of drilling and testing a hole of approximately US$15-18 million, it is clear that Rift needs a strong partner and today's announcement represents a huge endorsement not only of our discoveries, but of the potential for a third major gas development in PNG."
Peter Mikkelsen FGS, AAPG, meets the criteria of a qualified person under the AIM guidance note for mining, oil and gas companies and has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this announcement.
Enquiries:
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Rift Oil plc David Lees |
+44 20 7340 9970 |
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RBC Capital Markets Sarah Wharry |
+44 20 7653 4804 |
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Buchanan Communications Tim Anderson / Isabel Podda |
+44 20 7466 5000 |
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