24th Jan 2014 07:00
24 January 2014
PRESIDENT ENERGY PLC
("President" or "the Company")
New INDEPENDENT Audit of Resources in Paraguay
Results substantially ahead of expectations
President announces the results of an independent audit of its Prospective Resources carried out by the international consultancy RPS over its three 2014 drilling target prospect areas in Paraguay which are scheduled to be drilled in its 2014 exploration programme. The audit is based on the results of the extensive 2013 3D and 2D seismic campaign conducted by President over the last 12 months. President is on track to spud its first well during May.
Highlights
· The three RPS audited 2014 drilling target prospect areas estimated to have gross mean unrisked Prospective Resources of 1093 mmboe, which net to President equates to 647 mmboe of mean unrisked Prospective Resources and mean risked of 130 mmboe
· RPS has audited the mean success case outcomes for each prospect which attribute net to President US$11.7 billion NPV10 unrisked value; risked US$2.4 billion for the 2014 drilling target prospect areas
· The report demonstrates the opportunity to open up a significant new hydrocarbon province
· Over 20 leads and prospects yet to be evaluated
Introduction
President has now received from RPS, an independent reserves and resources auditor, the results of its audit of Prospective Resources over President's three 2014 drilling targets in the Pirity Rift Basin in Paraguay. The audit takes account of the results of the extensive 2013 3D and 2D Seismic campaign. Work continues on assessing the results of the seismic in relation to 20 other prospects and leads.
The three 2014 drilling targets are the Jacaranda Prospect, the Tapir Prospect (being within the Jurumi Complex) and the Yacare Prospect.
The results are as set out in the table below and illustrative slides showing inter alia the three target areas, the characteristics of the basin within which the target areas are located and the results of the 3D and 2D seismic on those areas will today be published on President's website together with the full 85 page RPS Report.
TABLE
Prospect | Mean Unrisked mmboe net to President | Mean Risked mmboe net to President | Mean Unrisked NPV10 $ million net to President | Risked NPV10 $ million net to President |
Jacaranda Cretaceous Paleozoic |
221.8 149.0 |
37.6 28.6 |
4396.5 1810.1 |
742.8 347.5 |
Jurumi Cretaceous (of which Tapir) Paleozoic (of which Tapir) |
192.9 (62.4)
74.5 |
51.7 (16.7)
10.0 |
4410.0 (1421.7)
852.1 |
1181.9 (381.0)
114.2 |
Yacare Cretaceous |
9.1 |
2.1 |
223.7 |
51.5 |
TOTAL
|
647.3 |
130.0 |
11692.4 |
2437.9 |
NOTE
1. President has right to earn up to 59% in Pirity Concession which will be attained part way through its 2014 drilling campaign. President also has right to earn up to 60% of Demattei Concession.
2. All figures in Table assume full earn in on farm-ins to Pirity and Demattei
3. The total NPV10 numbers shown above reflect success case standalone economics for each prospect, which are then aggregated.
Overview
When President originally farmed in to Paraguay the key focus of the exploration opportunity was to follow the proven Cretaceous oil trend across the border from Argentina into Paraguay. The seismic and other research undertaken by President also now shows the presence of numerous, large geological structures in a typical rifted fault block domain developed along the northern flank of the Pirity Rift Basin. This structural trend is undrilled to date and has potential to develop into a major new hydrocarbon province where new seismic shows it to contain the same Paleozoic rocks that are present in the 14 billion barrels oil equivalent province across the North West border in Bolivia and Argentina where giant Paleozoic gas fields have been developed by national and major oil companies. Thus the results demonstrate the presence of numerous, large geological structures, containing two independent source rocks, creating a double play system capable of providing a hydrocarbon charge to multiple drilling targets.
Prospects
Jacaranda
This large structural prospect is developed within the tilted fault block domain along the North West flank of the Pirity Rift Basin and has two petroleum systems with multiple play types. Prospective Resources have been attributed to four independent sandstone reservoirs within the Cretaceous and Paleozoic sections that can be tested with one vertical well. In the Cretaceous, the targets are likely to be oil in the Lecho Sand and a wet gas (gas and condensate) target in the underlying Pirgua Sand. In the Paleozoic, prospective sandstone reservoir targets are developed within the Carboniferous and Devonian and are most likely to contain wet gas. Jacaranda straddles President's Pirity and Demattei concessions with over 90% of the oil resource considered to be in the Pirity Concession.
Jurumi Complex
The Jurumi complex comprises five four way dip prospects in the Cretaceous Lecho reservoir, within one large regional closure of 130 sq km. The RPS audit covered the Cretaceous reservoir in only three prospects and for the Paleozoic section only in the Tapir drilling location within the Complex, where seismic shows a three way dip closure over a Paleozoic high. As in Jacaranda, in the Paleozoic the targets are considered to be most likely wet gas. President believes that upon completion of ongoing seismic interpretation studies, further significant Prospective Resources within the Jurumi Complex will be identified and results will be announced separately as part of the broader audit on President's other prospects and leads.
Yacare Prospect, Los Naranjos
Seismic shows this as a four way dip closure with Prospective Resources contained in the Cretaceous Lecho sand and the expected hydrocarbon phase is oil. Seismic pre stack depth migration (PSDM) is ongoing and prospect size cannot be reliably estimated until this work is complete.
Peter Levine, Chairman, President Energy commented:
"The outcome of the independent audit by RPS is very positive and in addition to demonstrating the potential for a material prize from the 2014 drilling campaign commencing in May, it has the benefit of indicating the opportunity for us to open up a significant new hydrocarbon province in north-western Paraguay."
Miles Biggins, Bsc Joint Honours University College London, with 22 years of experience in the oil
and gas sector, is a Petroleum Engineer and member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers who
meets the criteria of qualified persons under the AIM guidance note for mining and oil and gas
companies, has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this announcement.
Contact:
President Energy PLC
Peter Levine, Exec. Chairman +44 (0) 207 016 7950
John Hamilton, CEO +44 (0) 207 016 7950
Ben Wilkinson, Finance Director +44 (0) 207 016 7950
RBC Capital Markets
Jeremy Low, Matthew Coakes, Daniel Conti +44 (0) 207 653 4000
Canaccord Genuity Limited
Tim Redfern, Henry Fitzgerald-O'Connor +44 (0) 207 523 8000
Bell Pottinger +44 (0) 207 861 3232
Gavin Davis, Henry Lerwill
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