Georgina Energy PLC (LSE:GEX) this week provided operational updates on its Hussar and Mt Winter projects.
Despite severe weather conditions at Hussar, the company completed key site inspections and is awaiting the granting of a drilling permit, expected early next year.
At Mt Winter, the company reported progress with the Aboriginal Land Access Agreement, facilitated by the Central Land Council, and is preparing to submit it for final ministerial approval.
Anthony Hamilton, Georgina Energy’s CEO, described this as a “perfect outcome” for the project.
Here we take a closer look at what was said.
Proactive: Tony, very good to speak with you. You're out with operational updates on your Hussar and Mt Winter projects, and it looks like you're making good progress despite severe weather conditions at Hussar?
Anthony Hamilton: Yes. Thanks, Stephen. Yes, we are. We had a very good preliminary site visit, as we said in our most recent RNS at EP-513.
We completed all the key inspections and did the monitoring. On the way back, we encountered the beginnings of what would later become a severe low-pressure weather system—something like ten inches of rain in five minutes.
We left a number of our key consultants and people at the site who were subsequently meant to come to Perth to complete their reports for lodgment with DEMIRS. Unfortunately, quite a few of them were stuck for at least three or four days because of the severe flooding. It meant personnel didn’t get back, even though the work stream had been completed. They didn’t get back in time, and DEMIRS has closed and won’t reopen until the 3rd of January next year.
So, in terms of time, we’ve slipped a bit, but the outcome will still be the same. It will be the granting of our drilling permit for Hussar.
Proactive: How about Mt Winter? What progress have you made there?
Anthony Hamilton: Mount Winter, it's right. So obviously, as we know from our RNS on the 2nd of December, we got approval.
The CLC—the Central Land Council—had been instructed by the traditional landowners to prepare an ALRA, which is an Aboriginal Land Access Agreement. We are expecting the first draft of that shortly from the CLC.
That’s now advancing to the stage where we will complete the ALRA, submit that to the minister, and he will essentially rubber-stamp the granting of the permit.
From our perspective, that’s a perfect outcome as far as we’re concerned.
Proactive: So you do have multiple work streams underway at the moment, Tony. When you said in the release that you're still looking at additional targets and moving towards that scoping study, tell us what the next steps are for the projects.
Anthony Hamilton: Yeah, I mean, Georgina has always had multiple work streams on the go. One of the key elements for us was the drilling at Hussar as our primary target. Secondary to that was the granting of Mt Winter. EPA 155 was key to that.
On top of that, we had engaged in the reprocessing of the seismic for Mount Winter well before the approval and ultimate granting of the permit.
What that seismic has done is brought us to a point where we're reprocessing and remapping the existing 2D seismic.
Primarily, this is because we're looking at the same outcome we would expect with Hussar, where we saw an upgrade in the resource.
We’re also negotiating farm-ins and have signed two NDAs with large public companies in the oil and gas sector in Australia.
We're actively negotiating farm-in agreement terms with both of them. These assets have proven concentrations of helium, hydrogen, and natural gas at surface.
We’re going through the process, looking in the data room, and engaging consultants to trawl through significant amounts of data. If we can agree on terms, a farm-in and a subsequent announcement will be made to the market.
Proactive: As the year draws to a close, then we look forward to 2025. What should your investors be looking out for, Tony?
Anthony Hamilton: As we’ve said all along, re-entry at Hussar and the drilling of the Hussar reservoir; formalization and granting of EP 155; the formalization of a JOA, or joint operating agreement; and an announcement regarding the potential farm-in.
The scoping study is another significant step, and all of these will start happening in the first quarter of next year.
Proactive: Tony, I hope you'll keep us updated on any progress with that. And I hope the weather turns in your favor. If we don't speak again, have a good festive period.
Anthony Hamilton: Absolutely. Let’s hope Mother Nature does us some favours. It’s 43 degrees here in Perth at the moment, but there are thunderstorms in central Australia. Thank you very much. Have a great Christmas, and we’ll see you all in 2025.