Corcel PLC
("Corcel"
or the "Company")
Angola
Operations Update
31 May 2024
Corcel Plc (London AIM:
CRCL), the pan
Angola-Brazil focused exploration and production company, announces
an update to its exploration and development operations in onshore
Angola.
Highlights:
o Initial KON-11 drilling and well testing activities
suspended
o Focus turns to geological and geophysical data collection and
studies
o Onshore Angola remains a key commercial asset for Corcel - one
with multiple parallel avenues of value creation and
development
Corcel Executive Chairman Antoine Karam
commented: "While initial results in
Angola have not allowed immediate reactivation of the Tobias Field
as originally hoped, the block partners are undertaking a detailed
review of how to best utilize and exploit the two wells recently
completed and further develop the full potential of the
block. The Company and its block partners believe KON-11
continues to offer significant developmental potential and that
these early testing results are by no means a definitive
outcome.
Activities are accelerating at the Company's operated block,
KON-16, which we believe offers substantial upside and an
attractive exploration risk/return profile.
While the Company continues to actively review new projects as
part of the normal course of business, Corcel's interests in Angola
remain key commercial assets for the Company and we and our block
partners believe that further development will add significant
value to our respective businesses as our three blocks are
advanced.
Meanwhile, the Company intends to host an investor event
covering its current plans and strategy in the near term, with
further details to be provided."
Angola Operational Update:
The operator of Block KON-11, has
reported to the block partners that it has suspended well testing
operations on TO-13 following inconclusive results. After
several weeks of well testing and engineering efforts the well has
produced minimal levels of water and oil to date.
With the initial well tests now
completed, KON-11 operations will turn to geology and geoscience
efforts targeted to better understand these results and how they
might compare to the historic wells drilled and operated on the
Tobias field in KON-11. The block partners believe that
enhanced understanding of the subsurface conditions including
efforts made to better understand the natural fracture system
characteristics, any formation damage and residual issues with
water inflow should be the current focus.
Overall, the Company believes that
the identified potential of the Tobias reactivation effort, and
KON-11 more broadly, remains significant, and that these early
results will both usefully inform next steps and lead the block
partners to ultimate commercial production in the
block.
Activities at KON-16 during 2024 are
expected to focus on G&G studies, including review of existing
seismic data, a review of the historic Tuenza-1 well which had oil
shows in the pre-salt level and associated petrophysical
analysis. The immediate goal of these efforts is to prepare
an updated prospect and lead table for consideration by the block
partners.
The Company believes that KON-16
offers sizeable upside in the form of 1,029 MMbo unrisked
recoverable leads in the pre-salt, where the Tuenza-1 well (1960)
was historically drilled on the block and oil and gas was found
bleeding from the core in the Cuvo formation.
Corcel Angola Overview:
The current Corcel Angola portfolio
consists of three blocks in the onshore Kwanza Basin:
Block KON-11 and KON-12 are
considered brownfield redevelopment opportunities as each block
contains historic production from two separate fields, the Tobias
and Galinda fields, operated by Petrofina from the early 1960s
through to the 1990s, before both were shut-in it due to the
encroachment of fighting related to the Angolan civil war.
Combined historic production at both of these fields was over 30
MMbbls.
Corcel's current unproduced
prospective oil resources are estimated at:
o KON-11 - 65.3MMbbls - 11.7 MMbbls net
o KON-12 - 19MMbbls - 4.28 MMbbls net
KON
- 11 (Non-Operated) (20% working
interest - 18% net to CRCL)
o Two
new wells drilled indicating the presence of movable oil
o 12
historical wells + 2 new wells (Tobias Field)
o Peak
production of ~18,000 bopd in 1963
o Reservoir: Oolitic fractured carbonates in the Binga
Formation
o API:
35°
KON
- 12 (Non-Operated) (25% working
interest - 22.5% net to CRCL)
o 8
historical wells (Galinda Field)+ 4 wells in the separate Pitchi
structure
o Target reservoirs include the Cuvo Formation standstone and
the Binga Formation
o API:
28-30°
KON-16 is considered a high-upside
exploration block, with significant pre-salt and post-salt targets
and one historic well drilled on the license that encountered oil
shows in both the post and pre salt
horizons.
KON
- 16 (Operated) (35% working
interest - 31.5% net to CRCL)
o 1
historical well with oil shows in the Cuvo formation
o Sizeable pre and post salt targets across the
block,
o Post-salt 456 MMbbls - unrisked P50 (138 MMbo risked), 81.1
MMbls net
o Pre-salt 1,029 MMbbls - unrisked P50 (223 MMbo risked), 215.9
MMbls
Corcel is the operator of Block
KON-16 and a non-operator in Block KON-11 and
KON-12.
Politically, reactivation of the
Kwanza Basin, remains a key governmental goal in Angola, and
interest in the most recent block bid rounds has led to
unprecedented interest in the region. Activities across the blocks
are expected to significantly increase in the coming years, which
will ultimately attract more service providers and lower costs of
services, equipment and new wells in due course.
Qualified Persons Statement:
Jennifer Ayers, a Geologist with
over 25 years of relevant experience in the oil industry and member
of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and Geological
Society of America, has reviewed this announcement for the purposes
of the current Guidance Note for Mining, Oil and Gas Companies
issued by the London Stock Exchange in June 2009.
For
further information, please contact:
Antoine
Karam
Corcel Plc Executive
Chairman
Development@Corcelplc.com
Scott Gilbert
Corcel Plc CEO
Development@Corcelplc.com
James Joyce / James Bavister /Andrew de Andrade
WH Ireland Ltd NOMAD &
Broker
0207 220 1666
Patrick d'Ancona
Vigo
Communications IR
0207 3900 230
The information contained within
this announcement is deemed to constitute inside information as
stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014
which is part of UK law by virtue of the European Union
(withdrawal) Act 2018. Upon the publication of this announcement,
this inside information is now considered to be in the public
domain.