BOIL Baron Oil Plc

TIDMBOIL

RNS Number : 2956E

Baron Oil PLC

29 June 2023

29 June 2023

Baron Oil Plc

("Baron" or the "Company")

AGM Statement

Baron Oil Plc (AIM:BOIL), the AIM-quoted oil and gas exploration and appraisal company with projects in SE Asia and the UK, announces that at the Annual General Meeting of the Company to be held later today, the Company's Non-Executive Chairman, John Wakefield, will make the following statement:

SE Asia: Timor-Leste, offshore TL-SO-19-16 PSC ("Chuditch") - Baron 75%; TIMOR GAP 25%

Technical and commercial progress on the Chuditch asset has continued apace since the start of the year. The publication of the Competent Person's Report (CPR) prepared by ERC Equipoise Pte Ltd in February was a significant milestone in the technical evaluation of the asset. The CPR attributed approximately 1.1 Tcf of gross Pmean Contingent Gas Resources to the Chuditch-1 discovery (approximately 813 Bcf net to Baron, equivalent to 135MM barrels of oil). These discovered resources, when aggregated with the significant Prospective Resources in adjacent prospects, means that more than 2.6 Tcf of gas resources have been identified within the PSC on a gross Pmean basis.

Current technical activities are focused on further detailed interrogation of our data to identify optimal candidate locations for appraisal drilling, including additional geophysical work and environmental impact studies. The results will be input into detailed well planning. Discussions are being held with drilling contractors, to be well placed to expedite appraisal activities through 2024.

The recent granting of a six-month extension to the current contract year of the Chuditch PSC provides Baron's SundaGas subsidiary with additional time to continue these pre-drill preparatory activities. The extension was approved within three weeks of its formal request, illustrating the strong support from the Ministry of Petroleum, ANPM and TIMOR GAP for our efforts to progress the Chuditch project.

Baron continues efforts to attract funding partners and investors to jointly participate in a Chuditch appraisal well and other future activities. The project attracts interest, particularly with players with a close understanding of the Asia Pacific gas markets, as a candidate shallow-water gas development of scale. We look forward to providing more information around funding plans and potential partners when we are able to do so.

United Kingdom: Offshore Licence P2478 - Reabold Resources (Licence Administrator) 36%; Baron 32%; Upland Resources 32%

All Phase A technical studies, with Baron's involvement, were completed earlier this year on the P2478 licence situated in the Inner Moray Firth. The CPR delivered by the RPS Group in February was, similarly, a significant milestone, confirming the Dunrobin West prospect as a large, shallow, simple structure where an exploration well could target an aggregate of 119 MMboe gross unrisked Pmean Prospective Resources: this includes the estimated 71 MMbbl gross Pmean Prospective Resource at a geological Probability of Success of 34% for the primary Jurassic target.

As the current phase of the licence draws to a close the Joint Venture is actively engaged with the North Sea Transition Authority ("NSTA") with a view to extending Phase A of the Licence. Feedback received from potential funding partners encountered during the Joint Venture farmout campaign has been helpful, as we weigh up the various options going forward. One option might include completion of the 3D seismic coverage of Dunrobin West employing data acquisition techniques that maximise the chances of directly characterising the fluid content of the reservoir and hence even further reduce pre-drill risk and volumetric uncertainty.

New Ventures

Baron, as a non-operating partner, submitted an application in the 33rd Round of UK offshore licensing for a significant stake in a material prospect with modest initial work commitments located in a proven prospective fairway. Recently the technical interview with the NSTA was attended, during which the NSTA indicated that any offer would be made before the end of 2023.

We are continuously evaluating and pursuing other new ventures which meet Baron's stated corporate strategy.

Conclusion

Our priorities for the second half of 2023 are to make drilling decisions on Chuditch-1 and Dunrobin West. Chuditch has been confirmed as a significant, LNG-scale discovery and bringing a funding partner(s) alongside us will open the door to the long-awaited drilling and anticipated testing of an appraisal well on the Chuditch-1 discovery. In the UK, the outcome of our discussions with the NSTA will guide us through the next steps, where again we are pleased that Dunrobin West has been confirmed as a material oil prospect.

There is a lot to achieve over the coming months, as we look forward to the future with increased confidence.

For further information, please contact:

 
Baron Oil Plc 
 Andy Yeo, Chief Executive                +44 (0) 20 7117 2849 
 
Allenby Capital Limited 
 Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker 
 Alex Brearley, Nick Harriss, George 
 Payne (Corporate Finance) 
 Kelly Gardiner (Sales and Corporate 
 Broking)                                 +44 (0) 20 3328 5656 
 
Cenkos Securities Plc 
 Joint Broker 
 Neil McDonald, Pearl Kellie (Corporate 
 Finance)                                 +44 (0) 131 220 6939 / +44 (0) 207 
 Leif Powis (Sales)                        397 8900 
 
IFC Advisory Limited                      +44 (0) 20 3934 6630 
 Financial PR and IR                       baronoil@investor-focus.co.uk 
 Tim Metcalfe, Florence Chandler 
 

Qualified Person's Statement

Pursuant to the requirements of the AIM Rules - Note for Mining and Oil and Gas Companies ("AIM MOG"), the technical information and resource reporting contained in this announcement has been reviewed by Jon Ford BSc, Fellow of the Geological Society, Technical Director of the Company. Mr Ford has more than 40 years' experience as a petroleum geoscientist. He has compiled, read and approved the technical disclosure in this regulatory announcement and indicated where it does not comply with the Society of Petroleum Engineers' SPE PRMS standard.

Glossary

 
Bcf                                Billion standard cubic feet of gas. 
Contingent Resources               Those quantities of petroleum estimated, as of a given date, to be potentially 
                                   recoverable 
                                   from known accumulations by application of development projects, but which are not 
                                   currently 
                                   considered to be commercially recoverable owing to one or more contingencies. 
Geological Probability of Success  The estimated geological probability of success that exploration activities will 
                                   confirm the 
                                   existence of a significant accumulation of potentially recoverable petroleum. 
LNG                                Liquefied natural gas 
Mean or Pmean                      Reflects a mid-case volume estimate of resource derived using probabilistic 
                                   methodology. This 
                                   is the mean of the probability distribution for the resource estimates and may be 
                                   skewed by 
                                   resource numbers with relatively low probabilities. 
MMbbl                              Million barrels of oil. 
MMboe                              Million barrels of oil equivalent. Volume derived by dividing the estimate of the 
                                   volume of 
                                   natural gas in billion cubic feet by six in order to convert it to an equivalent in 
                                   million 
                                   barrels of oil and, where relevant, adding this to an estimate of the volume of oil 
                                   in millions 
                                   of barrels. 
Prospective Resources              Quantities of petroleum that are estimated to exist originally in naturally 
                                   occurring reservoirs, 
                                   as of a given date. Crude oil in-place, natural gas in-place, and natural bitumen 
                                   in-place 
                                   are defined in the same manner. 
SPE PRMS                           The Society of Petroleum Engineers' ("SPE") Petroleum Resources Management System 
                                   ("PRMS"): 
                                   a system developed for consistent and reliable definition, classification, and 
                                   estimation 
                                   of hydrocarbon resources prepared by the Oil and Gas Reserves Committee of SPE and 
                                   approved 
                                   by the SPE Board in June 2018 following input from six sponsoring societies: the 
                                   World Petroleum 
                                   Council, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the Society of Petroleum 
                                   Evaluation 
                                   Engineers, the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, the European Association of 
                                   Geoscientists 
                                   and Engineers, and the Society of Petrophysicists and Well Log Analysts. 
Tcf                                Trillion cubic feet of gas. 
 

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June 29, 2023 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT)