Upland Resources Limited (LSE: UPL), the oil and gas company actively building a portfolio of attractive upstream assets, is pleased to announce the publication of its audited annual report and financial statements for the year ended 30th June 2019 (“2019 Report”).
The Company’s 2019 Report will be posted to shareholders shortly and it will also be made available on the Company’s website at: http://upland.energy/
In addition, a copy of the 2019 Report will be uploaded to the National Storage Mechanism and will be available for viewing shortly at http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/NSM
Highlights include:
● Formally signed permit documents for Saouaf licence with Tunisia’s state oil company, ETAP, and the Ministry of Industry & Small & Middle Enterprises, allowing Upland to actively market participation in the Saouaf licence to potential farminees.
● Commissioned independent competent person’s report (“CPR”) for Saouaf which estimates Saouaf to hold 1.96 TCF recoverable gas plus 42 MMbbl oil, totalling a recoverable resource of 380 MMboe (millions of barrels of oil equivalent) over 13 leads and prospects.
● Continued to focus on securing assets in Sarawak, Malaysia. Through a number of initiatives with both national and Sarawakian players, Upland has maintained a public presence in the region as a new oil & gas regulatory regime is being put in place.
● The Company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Upland UK, together with partners, was awarded the highly prospective 31st Round licences P2470 and P2478 in the Inner Moray Firth area of the UK North Sea. Upland UK holds a 40% interest in these licences.
Post Period End:
● On 7 October 2019, Dr Steve Staley, the Chief Executive Officer, resigned with immediate effect for personal reasons. Christopher Pitman succeeded Dr Staley as interim CEO.
● Since his appointment as interim CEO, Christopher Pitman has met with the significant shareholding groups in Malaysia and initiated a review of the strategic direction of the Company.
● Several attractive investment opportunities have already been identified in the Asia Pacific region through our shareholder network and are now in the process of being evaluated by the Company’s technical specialists.
● The management believe that such opportunities offer unique and game changing potential for the Company to partner with established regional players to participate in both late life and marginal field assets.
Christopher Pitman, Upland’s CEO, said:
“In the coming months, emphasis will be placed on de-risking the Tunisian Saouaf licence through re-processing the existing seismic with a view to designing a new 2D seismic acquisition programme. We are delighted with the continued progress that we are making. The Saouaf Permit area has been independently verified as holding substantial amounts of potentially recoverable gas and oil prospects that may prove to be transformational for the business. New 2D seismic data will allow definition of both leads and prospects for potential future drilling. During this process, it is anticipated that strategic investors will be found through a managed farm-out campaign.
“The Company is also presently evaluating several significant opportunities in the Asia Pacific region which could enable Upland to access proven reserves. It is the belief of the management that local strategic partnerships in the Asian arena will provide game changing opportunities for growth by focussing on both late life producing assets and overlooked stranded discoveries.
“We are pleased with the progress made and look forward to updating shareholders in the coming months.”
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 on market abuse
| Upland Resources Limited | www.upland.energy |
| Christopher Pitman, CEO | Tel: +44 (0) 7891 677441 [email protected] |
| Optiva Securities Limited | |
| Jeremy King (Corporate Finance) | Tel: 020 3137 1904 [email protected] |
| Christian Dennis (Corporate Broker) | Tel: 020 3137 1903 [email protected] |
| FTI Consulting | |
| Ben Brewerton/Molly Stewart | Tel: +44 (0) 20 3727 1708 [email protected] |
| Flowcomms Ltd | |
| Sasha Sethi | Tel: +44 (0)7891 677441 [email protected] |
Chairman’s Statement
On behalf of the Board of Directors, I hereby present the consolidated financial statements of Upland Resources Limited (the “Group”, “Upland” or the “Company”) for the year ended 30 June 2019.
In early July 2018, our chairman, Norza Zakaria, stepped down due to pressure of other commitments, specifically following his recent election as President of the Olympic Council of Malaysia to be replaced by Bolhassan Di.
On the 1 August 2018, we were delighted to announce our application for an exclusive permit to explore the onshore Saouaf Permit area had been accepted by the Hydrocarbon Consultative Committee (“the HCC”) of the Government of Tunisia. Award of the permit was subsequently ratified by the HCC in late December. As is required under the terms of the permit, a US$1 million bank guarantee was put in place. This will be released as the seismic acquisition and interpretation work commitments under the two-year permit are fulfilled.
The permit includes an existing gas discovery (Dekrila), with an estimated 227 BCF recoverable resource, the undrilled Bou Dabbous Flower Structure with 813 BCF recoverable and the SNJ Prospect where the SNJ-1 well had oil on the shakers. On 28 June 2019, Upland’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Upland (Saouaf) Limited, signed the licence documents for Saouaf with Tunisia’s state oil company, ETAP, and the Ministry of Industry & Small & Middle Enterprises. This is the first licence where an Upland entity will act as operator.
The Company participated in the drilling of the Wick-1 exploration well in the Inner Moray Firth area of the North Sea during the year. Unfortunately, the main Beatrice Sandstone target, though good quality, was water bearing and the well was plugged and abandoned. Upland’s partners in this well were Corallian Energy, Baron Oil and Corfe Energy.
We continued to make good progress on the road to securing new assets in Sarawak. Through a number of initiatives with both national and Sarawakian players, Upland has maintained a high profile in the area as a new oil & gas regulatory regime is being put in place.
In October 2018, Optiva Securities Limited, broker and financial advisor to Upland, exercised 6,500,000 warrants to subscribe for new shares in the Company and in January 2019, the Company announced that it had allowed the £3.5 million loan note facility put in place in March 2018 to lapse on 31 December 2018 without having needed to call upon it.
On 7 October 2019, Dr Steve Staley, the Chief Executive Officer, resigned with immediate effect for personal reasons. Christopher Pitman succeeded Dr Staley as interim CEO. The Upland Board wishes to thank Steve for his service and the substantial contribution that he has made to the Group since Upland was set up in 2012 and wishes him the best in his future endeavours.
We are continuing to develop an attractive low risk portfolio of interests.
………………………..
B B H Di
Chairman
31 October 2019
For the full announcement please downloaded the PDF below:
ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2019