nigeria oml 42 purchase completed
DESCRIPTION
Nigeria OML 42 Purchase Completed.TRANSCRIPT
Kulczyk Oil Ventures Inc. www.kulczykoilventures.com
1170, 700-4th Avenue SW
Calgary, Alberta, T2P 3J4
Canada
Tel: +403 264 8877
Fax: +403 264 8861
1 December 2011
Press release
Nigeria OML 42 Purchase Completed By Neconde
KOV Retains Option To Participate
Kulczyk Oil Ventures Inc. (“Kulczyk Oil”, “KOV” or the “Company”), an international upstream oil
and gas company, announces that Neconde Energy Limited (“Neconde”) has completed the
acquisition of Oil Mining License 42 (“OML 42”) announced by KOV in a news release dated 6 May
2011. The purchase of OML 42 closed on 30 November 2011. The bridge financing arrangement
between KOV and its major shareholder has been extended until 31 March 2012 to provide the
Company sufficient time to secure financing.
Tim Elliott, President and Chief Executive Officer of KOV stated that:
“This transaction provides KOV with an opportunity to participate in a world-class project.”
On 6 May 2011 the Company announced that it had joined the Neconde consortium as a 20%
shareholder and that Neconde had entered into various agreements on 29 April 2011 with Shell
Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd, Total E&P Nigeria Limited and Nigerian Agip Oil
Company Limited (together, the “Sellers”), to acquire (the “Transaction”), the Sellers’ cumulative
45% participating interest in Oil Mining License 42 (“OML 42”). OML 42 is a large license containing
previously-discovered oil fields in the Niger Delta area of onshore Nigeria. The remaining 55%
participating interest in OML 42 is currently held by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company
(“NNPC”) and NNPC has advised that they will transfer the interest to Nigerian Petroleum
Development Company (“NPDC”), who will operate the block.
OML 42 is an 814 square kilometre lease originally awarded in 1962. Initial production commenced
in 1969 and aggregate production from the 5 fields discovered within OML 42 reached a peak of
approximately 250,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (“boe/d”) in the 1970’s. Production, which
was primarily oil, continued until the first part of 2005 when the producing fields were shut-in due to
security issues in the Niger Delta area. Production at the time of the shut-in was more than 50,000
barrels of oil per day (“bopd”) and more than 80 million cubic feet per day (“MMcf/d”) of natural gas.
The sales process for OML 42 started in late 2010 and during the first part of 2011 one of the fields
within the license area was put on-stream resulting in current production from OML 42 of
approximately 15,000 bopd.
When Neconde began the evaluation process on OML 42 earlier this year, it engaged RPS, an
independent engineering firm, to do an estimate of the remaining recoverable oil resources of OML
42 based on the material that had been made available by the Sellers up until that point. Details of
RPS estimates were published by the Company in a press release dated 6 May 2011. Neconde,
with the technical assistance of KOV, has further commissioned RPS, to undertake a much more
extensive study of OML 42, and prepare a Competent Persons Report (“CPR”) on the asset. This
report should be ready in the coming weeks.
The purchase of OML 42 by Neconde was completed for a purchase price, subject to closing
adjustments, of $585 million. Of this amount, $435 million was paid by consortium partners as
equity contributions to Neconde with KI paying for the potential share of KOV pursuant to the bridge
financing arrangement. The remaining $150 million of the total purchase price is funded through
Neconde debt financing.
In order to facilitate the participation of KOV in the Neconde consortium, Kulczyk Investments SA
(“KI”), the major shareholder of the Company, provided bridge financing in respect of the
Company’s share of Neconde’s acquisition costs of OML 42. KI and the Company agreed that until
such time as the Company raises funds to repay KI, the shares of Neconde allocated to KOV would
be held in trust for KI. It has been further agreed, in anticipation that the acquisition would have
closed prior to the end of October 2011, that if the Company had not raised funds to repay KI for its
bridge financing prior to 31 October 2011 the trust arrangement between KI and the Company
would terminate and KI would become fully entitled (legally and beneficially) to the Company’s
shares in Neconde. An agreement has been reached between the Company and KI to provide for
an extension of that bridge financing until 31 March 2012 to allow the Company time to secure
financing.
KOV has the option, until the end of March 2012, to participate for a 20% shareholding interest in
Neconde (an effective 9% participating interest in OML 42) for an aggregate price, assuming a close
of the KOV acquisition on 31 March 2012, of approximately $162.5 million. This price is comprised
of 31.96% of the cash portion of the purchase price of $435 million and 31.96% of the interest
charges related to $150 million of Neconde debt financing from 28 April 2011 until the closing date
plus $19 million of additional costs, most of which relate to the bridge financing arrangement with KI.
Cautionary Note – BOE
The term BOE may be misleading, particularly if used in isolation. The BOE conversion ratio of
6 Mcf of gas being equivalent to one barrel of oil is based on an energy equivalency conversion
method primarily applicable at the burner tip and does not represent a value equivalency at the
wellhead.
About Kulczyk Oil Kulczyk Oil is an international upstream oil and gas exploration and production company with a diversified portfolio of projects in Brunei, Syria and Ukraine and with a risk profile ranging from exploration in Brunei and Syria to production and development in Ukraine. The common shares of the Company trade on the Warsaw Stock Exchange under trading symbol “KOV”.
In Brunei, KOV owns working interests in two production sharing agreements which gives the Company the right to explore for and produce oil and natural gas from Block L and Block M. KOV owns a 40% working interest in Block L, a 2,220 square kilometre (550,000 acre) area covering onshore and offshore areas in northern Brunei and a 36% working interest in Block M, a 3,011 square kilometre (744,000 acre) area onshore in southern Brunei
In Ukraine, KOV owns an effective 70% interest in KUB-Gas LLC. The assets of KUB-Gas consist of 100% interests in five licenses near to the City of Lugansk in the northeast part of Ukraine. Four of the licenses are gas producing
In Syria, KOV holds a participating interest of 50% in the Syria Block 9 production sharing contract which provides the right to explore for and, upon fulfilment of certain conditions, to produce oil and gas from Block 9,
a 10,032 square kilometre (2.48 million acre) area in northwest Syria. The Company has an agreement to assign a 5% ownership interest to a third party which is subject to the approval of Syrian authorities, and which, if approved, would leave the Company with a remaining effective interest of 45% in Syria Block 9
The main shareholder of the Company, Kulczyk Investments S.A. owns approximately 47.6% of the issued common shares. Kulczyk Investments S.A. is an international investment house founded by Polish businessman Dr. Jan Kulczyk
For further information, please refer to the Kulczyk Oil website (www.kulczykoil.com) or contact the following: Kulczyk Oil Ventures Inc. – Canada Norman W. Holton, Vice Chairman Tel.: +1403 264-8877 [email protected] Kulczyk Oil Ventures Inc. – Poland Jakub J. Korczak, Vice President Investor Relations & Managing Director CEE Tel.: +48 22 414 21 00 [email protected]
Translation: This news release has been translated into Polish from the English original.
Forward-looking Statements This release may contain forward-looking statements made as of the date of this announcement with respect to future activities of the Company related to the acquisition of OML 42 and other statements that are not historical facts. Although the Company believes that its expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable as of the date hereof, any draft potential results suggested by such statements involve risk and uncertainties and no assurance can be given that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. Various factors that could impair or prevent the Company from completing the expected activities on its projects include that the Company's projects experience technical and mechanical problems, there are changes in product prices, failure to obtain regulatory approvals, the state of the national or international monetary, oil and gas, financial , political and economic markets in the jurisdictions where the Company operates and other risks not anticipated by the Company or disclosed in the Company's published material. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature, they involve inherent risks and uncertainties and actual results may vary materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statement. The Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements in this announcement to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this announcement, unless required by law.
Canada Suite 1170, 700-4th Avenue S.W., Calgary, Alberta Tel: +1-403-264-8877 Fax: +1-403-264-8861 United Arab Emirates Al Shafar Investment Building, Suite 123, ShaikhZayed Road, P.O. Box 37174, Dubai Tel: +971-4-339-5212 Fax: +971 4 339 5174
Poland ul. Nowogrodzka 18/29 00-511 Warszawa Tel: +48 (22) 414 21 00 Fax: +48 (22) 412 48 60