| Mon 15 Aug 2011, 8:00 | | SCL - SACOIL Holdings Limited - Operational Update Block III Albertine Graben |
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SCL
SCL
SCL - SACOIL Holdings Limited - Operational Update Block III, Albertine Graben,
Democratic Republic of Congo
SACOIL HOLDINGS LIMITED
(Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa)
(Registration number 1993/000460/06)
JSE share code: SCL
AIM share code: SAC
ISIN: ZAE0000127460
("SacOil" or "the Company")
Operational Update Block III, Albertine Graben, Democratic Republic of Congo
SacOil Holdings Limited (AIM/JSE), the independent African upstream oil and gas
company is pleased to provide an operational update on the Block III oil
concession ("Block III"), Albertine Graben in the Democratic Republic of Congo
(`DRC`), in which SacOil has an effective 12.5 per cent. interest.
As announced on 4 March 2011, Semliki Energy SPRL ("Semliki"), a 50 per cent.
owned subsidiary of SacOil, successfully concluded a farm-in agreement in March
2011 with Total E&P RDC ("Total") pursuant to which Total acquired an effective
60 per cent. undivided interest in, and became the operator of, Block III. The
Government of DRC holds an effective 15 per cent. interest and DIG Oil holds an
effective 12.5 per cent. interest respectively in Block III.
Work Programme
SacOil is pleased to announce the establishment of the Block III Operations
Committee ("Committee") for the management of Block III joint venture
operations. The Committee consists of members from SacOil, Total, DIG and a
representative of the Government. The first meeting took place in Kinshasa in
June 2011 and further meetings are scheduled to take place on a bi-annual basis
to monitor and report back on the execution of the work programme.
The work planned and agreed on Block III includes an airborne gravity and
magnetic survey over the licence area, the results of which are expected in Q4
of 2011. This will form the basis for the next stage of the programme which will
include the acquisition of a targeted 2D seismic survey. The performance of the
work programme is subject to first obtaining the relevant ministerial
authorisation.
Bradley Cerff, Vice President Commercial of SacOil commented today:
"I am pleased with the progress we are making at Block III with our partners
Total. Work will shortly commence on carrying out the preliminary aeromagnetic
surveys which is the precursor to targeted seismic surveys. The Block III
project in the DRC has an exceptional postcode in terms of recent neighbouring
discoveries in Uganda. We look forward to updating shareholders on further work
programmes as we move towards drilling a maiden well on Block III during the
first phase of the exploration period."
Johannesburg
15 August 2011
JSE Sponsor
Standard Bank
For further information, please contact:
SACOIL
United Kingdom Enquiries South African Enquiries
Tavistock Communications The Riverbed Agency
Jos Simson/ Ed Portman Raphala Mogase/Bongiwe Moeli
Tel: +44 (0)20 7920 3150 Tel: +27 (0) 11 783 7903
finnCap Ltd Shore Capital Stockbrokers Ltd
(Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker to SacOil) (Joint Broker)
Matthew Robinson/Ed Frisby Jerry Keen/Bidhi Bhoma/Toby
Gibbs
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7600 1658 Tel: +44 (0) 20 7408 4050
TOTAL S.A.
Press department
Phenelope Semavoine/ Florent Segura
Tel: +33 (1) 47 44 46 99
About SacOil
SacOil is a South African based JSE and AIM listed independent E&P company
focused exclusively on operations in Africa, where SacOil has a competitive
advantage at the point of entry. To date it has operations in the DRC (and
since partnered with Total), Nigeria and South Africa and continues to evaluate
a number of opportunities to secure new value accretive acreage in other
established and prolific African hydrocarbon basins.
Block III, DRC
Block III is situated in the Albertine Graben, DRC and comprises an area of
3,177 kmSquared, which is mostly lowland (Semliki river plain) and is flanked by
rift margins. Block III is on trend with Lake Albert discoveries in Uganda. The
largest discovery in the Escarpment/Near-shore Play is Kingfisher (200MMbbl) and
the largest discovery in the Victoria Nile Delta Play is Giraffe-Buffalo
(300MMbbl). Over 800 million barrels of recoverable oil have been discovered in
the Albertine Graben, and the total resource base is estimated at two billion
barrels. To date, the majority of the exploration has been within the borders of
Uganda, but the DRC concessions are considered to be highly prospective, with
Block III being close to recent significant discoveries.
Date: 15/08/2011 08:00:56 Produced by the JSE SENS Department.
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