United Oil & Gas PLC (LON:UOG) shares resumed trading in London this morning alongside the completion of its deal to acquire Rockhopper Exploration PLC’s (LON:RKH) Egyptian business, securing revenue generating production for the AIM-quoted firm.
"Completing the Acquisition of Rockhopper Egypt represents a significant milestone in the development of United, establishing the company as a full-cycle E&P company, and putting us in a strong position for further growth,” said Brian Larkin, United chief executive.
The acquired 22% non-operated stake in the Abu Sennan concession is yielding around 1,700 barrels oil equivalent per day – with the underlying operation producing around 7,900 boepd – thanks to the recent addition of a new well (ASH-2).
ASH-2 alone, in December, achieved a rate of 7,027 boepd during testing and it has been onstream, producing more than 3,000 boepd since the start of January.
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Another new well, El Salmiya-5, was spudded in early February and it is targeting multiple reservoirs.
El Salmiya-5 is one of four fully funded well that are being drilled within the Abu Sennan concession this year.
Additionally, operations are underway to deliver a new gas pipeline for the Al Jahraa field. It is expected to complete shortly and when it does this new piece of infrastructure is expected to put on stream up a further 1,000 boepd worth of gas.
Abu Sennan presently comprises a total of seven fields, and, United said it intends to support operator Kuwait Energy to optimise production operations and pursue the “significant” exploration that’s still seen within the licence area.
Presently third-party estimates see some 12.12mln boe of reserves at Abu Sennan, giving United the equivalent of 2.66mln boe, plus a further 29.4mln boe of “unrisked prospective resources”.
"With drilling now underway at El Salmiya 5, the first well in the fully funded 2020 infill programme in Egypt, first gas scheduled for later this year in Italy and further progress expected across our other licence areas, we are entering an exciting phase in United's development, one which will see our highly cash generative platform deployed to grow the company further,” Larkin added.
“With this in mind, we look forward to keeping shareholders appraised of our next steps on what has already been an exceptional growth trajectory."
United shares were changing hands at 2.9p in Friday’s early deals.