Embargoed: 0700hrs 16 July 2012
The Niche Group plc
(“Niche” or the “Company”)
Competent Person’s Report
Niche, the oil and gas focused investment company, is
pleased to issue the key findings of an updated Competent
Person’s Report (“CPR”) by Senergy (GB) Ltd
(“Senergy”), comprising an independent evaluation
of the recoverable hydrocarbons for interests in Blocks
AR/ARR/4396, AR/ARR/4395 and AR/ARR/4394 (together the
“Hatay Blocks”) and AR/ARR/4077 in Konya
(“Konya Block”) (together the
“Blocks”).
At the time of this announcement Niche has an
indirect interest in the Blocks of 17.85 per cent. This
interest is held via loans convertible into 35.7 per cent.
of the share capital of Oman Resources Limited
(“Oman”). Oman holds a 50 per cent. participating
interest in the Blocks. As announced on 30 March
2012, Niche has entered into a conditional share purchase
agreement to acquire the entire issued share capital of
Oman.
The CPR has been prepared in connection with the
proposed acquisitions by Niche of Oman and Arar Petrol ve
Gaz AUPAS’s (“Arar”) 50 per cent. interest in
the Blocks (“Acquisitions”). The Acquisitions, if
completed, would constitute a reverse takeover under the
AIM Rules for Companies and as such the CPR has been
commissioned to be included in any admission document to be
published in connection with the Acquisitions. For the
avoidance of doubt, at the date of this Announcement,
Niche does not currently hold any direct interest in
the Blocks, has not entered into any binding agreements in
connection with the proposed acquisition of Arar’s
interest in the Blocks and there can be no certainty that
the Acquisitions will be completed.
Key findings
· Changes
in net Reserve volumes compared to the previous CPR (as
notified to the market on 27 October 2011) are mainly due
to the results of the Ciftlik-1 well (announced on 4 May
2012).
The following table shows the gross reserves and
resources of the Blocks. Where appropriate, gas
resources have been converted to an oil equivalent using
5.8 Mscf = 1 boe.
Reserves
(Proved plus Probable)
Volume Gas (Bscf)
Contingent Resources
(2C)
Volume Gas (Bscf)
Prospective Resources
(Best Estimate)
Volume Gas (Bscf)
Konya Block
–
140.7
128.2
Hatay Blocks
46.6
–
126.8
Total Gas (Bscf)
46.6
140.7
255.1
Total Hydrocarbons (MMboe)
8.0
24.3
44.0
Negotiations for the Acquisitions, which, if
completed, would result in the Niche group of companies
holding a 100% interest in the Blocks, are ongoing and all
parties are working together to conclude the transactions
as soon as practicable. If an admission document is
published in connection with the Acquisitions, the full CPR
will be made available in any such admission
document.
Enquiries:
The Niche Group plc
Donal Boylan
Tel: + 353 (87) 2769655
Deloitte LLP – Nominated Adviser
Jon Hinton or Oliver Rigby
Tel: +44 (0)20 7007 1815
M: Communications
Ben Simons
Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7920 2340
Note:
The above information was approved by Chris de Goey,
Global Head of Senergy’s Reserves and Asset Evaluation
Business. Chris has 20 years experience in technical and
commercial roles in the energy industry. He has an MSc in
Physics from Delft University. Chris was managing a senior
team of Competent Persons who have carried out the previous
CPR as well as this July 2012 update to the CPR.
Senergy (GB) Limited is a privately owned independent
consulting company established in 1990, with more than 500
staff based in offices in the UK, Norway, Middle East,
Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia and the USA. The company
specialises in petroleum reservoir engineering, geology,
geophysics, well engineering, facilities engineering and
petroleum economics. All of these services are
supplied under an accredited ISO9001 quality assurance
system.
Standards Applied:
In compiling this report Senergy has used the
definitions and guidelines set out in the 2007 Petroleum
Resources Management System prepared by the Oil and Gas
Reserves Committee of the Society of Petroleum Engineers
(SPE) and reviewed and jointly sponsored by the World
Petroleum Council (WPC), the American Association of
Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) and the Society of Petroleum
Evaluation Engineers (SPEE). The results of this work have
been presented in accordance with the requirements of AIM,
a Market operated by the London Stock Exchange, in
particular as described in the “Note for Mining and
Oil and Gas Companies – June 2009”.
Glossary of Technical Terms:
Prospective Resources
Prospective Resources are those quantities of
petroleum estimated, as of a given date, to be
potentially recoverable from undiscovered
accumulations by application of future development
projects. Prospective Resources have both an
associated chance of discovery and a chance of
development. Prospective Resources are further
subdivided in accordance with the level of certainty
associated with recoverable estimates assuming
their discovery and development and may be
sub-classified based on project maturity.
Proved
Proved Reserves are those quantities of petroleum,
which, by analysis of geoscience and engineering
data, can be estimated with reasonable certainty to
be commercially recoverable, from a given date
forward, from known reservoirs and under defined
economic conditions, operating methods, and
government regulations. If deterministic methods are
used, the term reasonable certainty is intended to
express a high degree of confidence that the
quantities will be recovered. If probabilistic
methods are used, there should be at least a 90%
probability that the quantities actually recovered
will equal or exceed the estimate.
Proved plus Probable
Probable Reserves are those additional Reserves which
analysis of geoscience and engineering data indicate
are less likely to be recovered than Proved Reserves
but more certain to be recovered than Possible
Reserves. It is equally likely that actual remaining
quantities recovered will be greater than or less
than the sum of the estimated Proved plus Probable
Reserves (2P). In this context, when probabilistic
methods are used, there should be at least a 50%
probability that the actual quantities recovered will
equal or exceed the 2P estimate.
Proved plus Probable plus Possible
Possible Reserves are those additional reserves which
analysis of geo-science and engineering data suggest
are less likely to be recoverable than Probable
Reserves. The total quantities ultimately recovered
from the project have a low probability to exceed the
sum of Proved plus Probable plus Possible (3P)
Reserves, which is equivalent to the high estimate
scenario. In this context, when probabilistic methods
are used, there should be at least a 10% probability
that the actual quantities recovered will equal or
exceed the 3P estimate.
Reserves
Reserves are those quantities of petroleum
anticipated to be commercially recoverable by
application of development projects to known
accumulations from a given date forward under defined
conditions. Reserves must further satisfy four
criteria: they must be discovered, recoverable,
commercial, and remaining (as of the evaluation date)
based on the development project(s) applied. Reserves
are further categorized in accordance with the level
of certainty associated with the estimates and may be
sub-classified based on project maturity and/or
characterized by development and production status.
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 due to one or more
contingencies. Contingent Resources are further
categorized in accordance with the level of certainty
associated with the estimates and may be
sub-classified based on project maturity and/or
characterized by their economic status.
Mscf
thousand of standard cubic feet
boe
barrels of oil equivalent
Bscf
Billion standard cubic feet
MMboe
Million barrels of oil equivalent