Steve Staley, CEO of Upland Resources Limited, said: The Board of Upland is pleased to announce the signature of the Saoauf Licence. This enables us to move forward with our plans in the Saouaf Licence area whilst we continue to pursue other ventures in Tunisia, Sarawak and the North Sea. We will continue to update the market on progress across all of our projects.
Upland Resources Limited (LSE:UPL), the oil and gas company actively building a portfolio of attractive upstream assets, is pleased to announce the formal signing of the permit documents for the exclusive Saouaf hydrocarbon exploration and appraisal licence (the “Saouaf Licence”), onshore northern Tunisia took place in Tunis on the afternoon of Friday, 28th June 2019. The documents were signed by Upland (Saouaf) Limited (“Upland Saouaf”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, the Tunisian Minister of Industry and Small & Middle Enterprises and the Tunisian state oil company, Entreprise Tunisienne d’Activités Pétrolières (“ETAP”).
Highlights:
· The signature of the permit documents allows Upland to actively market participation in the Saouaf Licence to potential farminees, whereas previously the Company could only receive unsolicited expressions of interest.
· Such unsolicited expressions of interest have already come from several companies, including major international and national oil & gas companies.
· The highly gas-prospective Saouaf Licence covers 4,004 km2, is operated by Upland Saouaf and is held 50/50 in the joint names of Upland Saouaf and ETAP.
· Field visits have revealed the presence of additional surface oil seeps that indicate a significant oil play may also be possible, in addition to the extensive prospects described below.
· The desirability of the acreage is further enhanced by attractive wholesale gas prices, a strong demand for gas and the existing gas pipelines that cross the Licence area: these currently have spare capacity and provide access to existing local gas markets.
· The Saouaf Licence is for an initial term of two years and may be converted and thereby extended in term at Upland Saouaf’s option as long as the work commitments of the initial term have been fulfilled within the two years. The commitments for the next phase include drilling one new well.
· Upland has organised for a US$1 million bank guarantee to be lodged in favour of the Tunisian Government against these first phase work commitments. This is in place and will be released in a phased manner, as the work programme progresses.
· As previously announced, the Saouaf Licence is estimated by the independent Competent Person, Blackwatch Petroleum Services Limited, to hold recoverable resources of approximately 2 TCF of gas and 42 MMbbl oil across thirteen prospects and leads. This includes the existing Dekrila gas discovery, alone estimated to host a 227 BCF recoverable resource, and the Bou Dabbous Flower structure with an estimated 813 BCF recoverable. A detailed breakdown of the leads and prospects is included below (the 42MMbbl oil prospect is not included in the below table).
· The Company is making good progress in its assessment of a number of possible acquisitions of producing assets in Tunisia and, though it is not certain that an acquisition wil be made, an update will be provided to the market in due course.
Upland is an upstream oil & gas company whose highly experienced management has a track record of creating major value for shareholders in junior oil & gas companies, including Cove Energy plc. The Company has extensive technical and commercial skills and contacts, management having held senior roles in major international oil companies.
