Upland (LSE:UPL), the oil and gas company actively building a portfolio of attractive upstream assets, is pleased to announce that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Upland Resources (UK Onshore) Limited (“Upland UK”), has increased its participating interest in PEDL299 – the Petroleum Exploration and Development Licence awaiting the announcement of final execution by the Department of Energy & Climate Change (“DECC”) following its award to Upland UK and its bid partners, together with INEOS Upstream Limited (“INEOS”), in the 14th UK Onshore Oil and Gas Licensing Round.
Following the recent acquisition by Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc (“Europa plc”) of Shale Petroleum (UK) Limited (“Shale Petroleum”), Europa plc has agreed, subject to regulatory approval, to assign Shale Petroleum’s 16.665% interest in PEDL299 – as to 8.33% to Upland UK and as to 8.335% to Europa plc’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Europa Oil & Gas Limited (“Europa Oil & Gas”). This was as part of a pre-existing arrangement should any member of the original bid group withdraw from the bid consortium.
Subject to the approval of the Oil & Gas Authority (“OGA”), Upland UK’s participating interest in INEOS-operated PEDL299, which contains the Hardstoft oil field and Hardstoft East prospect, will increase from 16.67% to 25%.
The intended award of PEDL299 was originally announced by the OGA and by the Company on 17 December 2015. Since this date, Upland UK along with its other bid partners in the 14th UK Onshore Licensing Round have been waiting for the announcement by the OGA of the execution by DECC of PEDL299. The Company does, however, hope to be in a position to update the market on this very shortly.
The following table shows the participating interests for Upland UK, Europa, Shale Petroleum and INEOS both prior to and following the assignments of Shale Petroleum’s interest:-
Note that the above table represents the interests in the conventional prospectively of PEDL299. INEOS has 100% of the interest in the unconventional prospectivity.
| Partner | Prior Interest | Proposed interest |
|---|---|---|
| Upland UK | 16.67% | 25% |
| Europa Oil & Gas & Shale Petroleum | 33.3% | 25% |
| INEOS (Operator) | 50% | 50% |
Upland CEO Steve Staley commented:
“Upland is delighted to be able to increase its stake in PEDL299 which is a low cost, low risk asset and in turn, following execution of the licence award by DECC, to developing the Hardstoft oil field and Hardstoft East prospect within it. The Upland Board considers that this step to increase Upland UK’s stake in a high quality asset with a high percentage chance of success (80% for the estimated il field and the Hardstoft East prospect; we look forward to the announcement by the OGA of the execution by DECC of PEDL299 and to updating shareholders on our development plans.”
| Upland Resources Limited | www.upland.energy |
| Steve Staley, CEO | Tel: 07704 974784 [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] |