TIDMMATD
RNS Number : 7581P
Petro Matad Limited
14 February 2023
For immediate release
14 February 2023
Petro Matad Limited
("Petro Matad" or the "Company")
Operational Update
Petro Matad (AIM: MATD), the AIM quoted Mongolian oil company,
provides the following operational update.
Key Company Updates
-- Progress being made to register Block XX Exploitation Area as special purpose land
-- High impact exploration drilling on the Velociraptor prospect scheduled for Q2 2023
-- Application submitted for a new block in Mongolia's 2023
Exploration Tender Round with plans for more during the year
-- Joint venture established with an active and successful
renewable energy project developer to pursue opportunities in
Mongolia's high potential renewables sector
-- Successfully closed a recent equity capital fundraise round totalling $6.6 million
Block XX Exploitation Licence
T he Mongolian government's process to certify Petro Matad's
Block XX Exploitation Licence area as special purpose land is
progressing although more slowly than the Company was initially
advised. We continue to press for rapid action at all levels and
this remains our number one priority. Formal correspondence from
central, provincial and district authorities has been sent to the
relevant agencies as required by the legally prescribed process
ahead of submission of the certification to cabinet for
approval.
Contracts with the in-country well testing and completion
contractors are in place for the completion work required on Heron
1. Discussions with Petro China on oil processing, export and sales
are ongoing with the facilitation of industry regulator, the
Mineral Resources and Petroleum Authority of Mongolia ( " MRPAM " )
.
Negotiations with DQE Drilling ("DQE") , the main provider of
drilling services in Mongolia, have been completed and the contract
for a multi-well development drilling programme is with DQE's head
office for review and approval after which we plan to seek the
approval of MRPAM. We have also been approached by other service
providers looking to enter the oil sector in Mongolia and we are
reviewing their credentials and equipment to see if they may offer
a competitive solution for our needs now or in the future.
Block V Exploration
With the conclusion of our recent equity raise we are now
preparing to drill the Velociraptor 1 well. With mean prospective
resource potential of 200 million barrels recoverable and 380
million barrels recoverable of follow up potential in adjacent
structures, the well will have a transformational impact for
Mongolia as well as for the Company in the event of success.
We expect the well will be closely watched by the global E&P
community as it has significance not only for the Company's Block V
but also for the many lightly explored or unexplored basins of
southern and western Mongolia that constitute one of the largest
remaining unexplored onshore exploration frontiers on the
planet.
The rig contract has been signed with Major Drilling, an
internationally active Canadian company that has been operating in
Mongolia for over 20 years. Discussions with the contractor are
underway to confirm a spud date during the second quarter of 2023.
The well has a proposed total depth (TD) of 1500m and is expected
to take c.30 days to drill. The well will be within the prospective
target section from c.600m until TD and will have a suite of
conventional wireline logs run. In the event of encouragement, an
appraisal well will be planned and testing operations will then be
conducted. With a domestic oil refinery under construction and with
domestic oil production forecast to fall short of meeting the
refinery's needs, Petro Matad is seeing strong government support
for its exploration efforts.
In addition, the Company is stepping up its community
interaction in Block V to capitalise on the existing goodwill and
to ensure that we continue to be accepted as a cooperative,
constructive and trustworthy partner.
2023 Exploration Licencing Round
MRPAM's Exploration Licencing round offering 14 blocks in
prospective fairways across the southern half of Mongolia is in
progress. Petro Matad has submitted an application for one of the
blocks offered in Phase 1 of the process and hopes to be called to
negotiate commercial terms and work programme in due course. The
Company has identified three other blocks that are scheduled for
release in phases 2 and 3 of the round during 2023 and will be
doing the necessary technical work to determine if these blocks
merit applications being submitted. Petro Matad has a significant
competitive advantage as the country's leading explorer with a
skilled and experienced team and an extensive database built up
over many years of activity.
Renewable Energy Opportunities in Mongolia
Following the Company's review of the renewable energy sector in
Mongolia and the recent changes in government strategy, the Company
sees significant opportunity for a nimble and entrepreneurial
operator to be successful in the country. The government's energy
strategy calls for an increase in the contribution of renewable
energy to its overall electricity supply from c.10% now to 30% by
2030, to be fully self-sufficient and to be exporting power to its
neighbours and potentially beyond by the end of the decade.
Petro Matad is forming a joint venture with a very active and
successful Mongolian renewable energy project developer called
SunSteppe Energy ("Sunsteppe"). The combination of SunSteppe's
expertise, contacts and track record with Petro Matad's project
execution experience and in-country support functions will give the
joint venture an excellent capability to compete in the country's
growing renewables sector and to benefit from the early entrant
advantages that the Company sees are on offer. Mongolia has huge
renewable energy generation potential from solar and wind projects.
The country has large areas of very lightly inhabited land and a
firm commitment from the government to improve the environment and
the wellbeing of its population, to reduce its emissions and to
become an exporter of clean energy.
The joint venture being established will be called SunSteppe
Renewable Energy and it is looking to develop multiple projects to
construction ready status within the next 24 months. Priority
projects have already been identified in solar supplied battery
storage to help improve Mongolian grid efficiency and in clean
energy supply to mining projects in the South Gobi region. Projects
identified range in size from a few tens of megawatts to hundreds
of megawatts.
Mike Buck, CEO of Petro Matad, said:
" Whilst we are pleased to see the process for special purpose
certification of Block XX moving forward, we are disappointed with
the pace and have made this abundantly clear to the authorities.
Our recent interactions with the local authorities have given us
renewed hope that we may be able to secure local land use approvals
and we are pursuing these in parallel with the certification
process.
We are very excited about the prospectivity in Block V and are
looking forward to drilling Velociraptor 1 during the second
quarter. This low cost well is targeting big resource potential and
will have a huge financial impact for Petro Matad if it comes
in.
We are also enthusiastic to get involved in the renewable energy
sector in Mongolia through the SunSteppe Renewable Energy joint
venture. Our Mongolian partners in this endeavour bring a wealth of
experience and we have high hopes that it will generate attractive
opportunities in the near term.
Our recent equity raise has given the Company the financial
firepower it needs to maintain the Company's operational
capability, to execute a high impact exploration programme, to
start production from our existing discovery once permits are
secured, to pursue new acreage and to expand activities into
renewables. We look forward to a busy and rewarding 2023."
- Ends -
Further information please contact:
Petro Matad Limited
Mike Buck, CEO +976 7014 1099 / +976 7575 1099
Shore Capital (Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker)
Toby Gibbs
John More +44 (0) 20 7408 4090
Zeus Capital Limited (Joint Broker)
Simon Johnson
Louisa Waddell +44 (0) 20 7614 5900
FTI Consulting (Communications Advisory Firm)
Ben Brewerton
Christopher Laing +44 (0) 20 3727 1000
All Reserves and Resources definitions and estimates shown in
this report are based on the 2018 SPE/AAPG/WPC/SPEE Petroleum
Resource Management System ("PRMS").
Technical information in this news release has been reviewed by
the Company's Technical Manager, Mr. Jerry Smart. He has over 40
years of industry experience in oil and gas exploration and
production with LASMO, Eni, Salamander Energy and Ophir Energy. He
holds a B.Sc. in Geology from King's College, London.
Glossary
Mean The arithmetic mean of quantities of petroleum estimated, as of a given date, to be
Prospective Resources potentially
recoverable from undiscovered accumulation by application of a future development project
About Petro Matad
Petro Matad is the parent company of a group focussed on oil
exploration, as well as future development and production in
Mongolia. At the current time, Petro Matad holds 100% working
interest and the operatorship of two Production Sharing Contracts
with the Government of Mongolia. Block XX has an area of 218 square
kilometres in the far eastern part of the country and Block V has
an area of 7,937 square kilometres in the central western part of
the country.
Petro Matad Limited is incorporated in the Isle of Man under
company number 1483V. Its registered office is at Victory House,
Prospect Hill, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 1EQ.
This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the
London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct
Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United
Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution
of this information may apply. For further information, please
contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.
RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms
and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information
contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an
anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services.
For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange
use the personal data you provide us, please see our Privacy
Policy.
END
UPDSFMFDDEDSEDE
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 14, 2023 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)
Petro Matad (LSE:MATD)
Historical Stock Chart
Von Apr 2024 bis Mai 2024
Petro Matad (LSE:MATD)
Historical Stock Chart
Von Mai 2023 bis Mai 2024