MOROCCO: Predator Oil & Gas to Raise £3.3 million towards Drilling of the MOU-2 Well
The Proceeds of the Placing, less expenses, will be spent entirely on high impact and high reward drilling to target the Moulouya Fan penetrated in MOU-1 in 2021.
MOU-2 will target the potential reservoir sweet spot for which net Contingent Resources are in the range 295 BCF (Best Estimate) to 708 BCF (high Estimate) as defined in the independent Competent Persons Report by SLR Consulting (Ireland) Ltd. in 2022.
SLR have assigned an NPV of US$ 592 million net to the Company. Risk is identified by SLR is solely a commercial risk based on a longer term monetisation of a gas-to-power development, whereas the Company now has a faster and cheaper route to monetisation based on the sale of Compressed Natural Gas by truck direct to the Moroccan industrial market. The Company’s management has extensive relevant experience in selling gas to Moroccan end users.
The Company is now fully funded to complete and test the MOU-2 well and to test the MOU-1 well at the same time from existing cash resources.
Successful completion of the drilling and testing programmes will provide the basis for an initial CNG development project and provide a catalyst to potentially finalising a lease financing arrangement as part of overall operating costs. Under the Company’s current commercial model for financing an initial CNG development this is not expected to result in diluting equity interest in the project whereas a conventional farmout option would result in dilution at the project level and possible loss of operatorship and overall control of timing and execution of key commercial objectives.
Paul Griffiths, Executive Chairman of Predator Oil & Gas Holdings Plc commented:
“It was absolutely necessary to take advantage of a narrow window in an otherwise difficult and highly competitive market to raise funds to enable the high impact, high reward MOU-2 drilling to be executed whilst there is still some availability of long lead items required for drilling and before the cost of well services increases further as demand outstrips supply.
As a Company we have to carefully balance the strategic objective of drilling at a time when European gas supplies are likely to be constrained by the Ukraine-Russian crisis, with a resulting gas price spike, versus delaying to complete a pre-drill extended farmout process that might result in significant pre-drill project dilution in our entire licence area.
We are comfortable with the risk versus reward proposition. I am personally delighted to be loaning shares to the Company and to accept the commercial risk that such a transaction creates for me simply on the basis of my extensive oil and gas experience over many years in many different geographic jurisdictions that allows me to identify MOU-2 as a potential company-maker.
Furthermore, the loan of shares to the Company reduces the impact of pre-drill dilution for all our shareholders and allows all shareholders to benefit from a potential uplift of the value of the Company on announcing the drilling results”