Natural Gas Eastern Slovenia Slovenia Investment Forum

Transcription

1 Natural Gas Eastern Slovenia Slovenia Investment Forum 12 th April 2011

2 Introduction Listed on the London Stock Exchange AIM since 2004 Tightly focused on the exploration and exploitation of European gas Balanced portfolio across five countries with a number of near term, high impact, opportunities Recent placing of 20 million, primarily to advance Petišovci/ Lovászi/Ujfalu project Leveraging strong European gas prices and working in stable fiscal and legislative environments 2

3 Ascent s European Portfolio = Core project = Other project 3

4 Achievements Acquired 10 state-of-the-art seismic surveys (2-D reconnaissance and hi-resolution 3-D) Drilled 18 wells with good success ratio Discovered and developed Eastern Hungarian gas field and currently producing gas to the national pipeline network Excellent Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Record No Lost Time Accidents No Environmental Damage No Well Control Incidents 4

5 Seismic Acquisition

6 Seismic Processing Processing

7 Geological Modelling

8 Drilling Operations 8

9 Production 9

10 Petišovci/Lovászi/Ujfalu Slovenia/Hungary Tight Gas Exploration and Development 10

11 Petišovci-Lovászi/Ujfalu 200 km 2 project area straddling Hungary/ Slovenia border Contains three former oil and gas fields: Petišovci - SLO Lovászi - HU Ujfalu - HU On-going Pg-11 well - the first drilled in the Petišovci field in 22 years, confirms main project parameters Full 3-D seismic acquired across the complete Project area Project targets undeveloped tight gas reservoirs with substantial independently verified gas-inplace of over 400 Bcf (RPS) and management estimate new Karpatian reservoirs to have over 100 Bcf additional potential Local infrastructure and national pipeline connections in the field area 11

12 Petišovci Geological Structure 12

13 Petišovci Preliminary Results Phase-1 of Pg-11 well completed in February results exceed expectations state of the art data set collected Six Middle Miocene reservoirs targeted - all found to be gas bearing Gas and condensate sampled and flared from Lower Miocene Karpatian reservoir and flowed for the first time from the shallowest A sands Three cores recovered from the A, D and E sands and full log data now being analysed for a full range of petrophysical parameters Phase-2 designed to evaluate Karpatian reservoir and production completions based on the analysis of the data already acquired Plan to drill Pg-11 sidetrack well in Phase-2 and subsequently Pg-10, both expected to produce this year 13

14 Exploiting Petišovci Detailed engineering and assessment work in progress Integrating new data into geological model for preparation of Field Development Plan Simple pipeline connection required to Geoplin national pipeline in field area Modifications to existing facilities planned for condensate and CO 2 removal Development plan envisages wells over 3 to 4 year period Conventional and tight gas reservoirs; appointment of Technical Advisor and deploy technical resources of EnQuest plc* Anticipate production to commence in late 2011 *16.5% shareholder in Ascent Resources plc 14

15 Investment overview Ascent and its subsidiaries have already invested over 20 million in Slovenia. Ascent continues to fund 100% of the cost to earn a 75% share of any revenue, covering the 25% share held by NAFTA and Petrol. This year alone we would expect to spend well over 10m on drilling and infrastructure requirements in Slovenia. With the successful drilling and completion of Pg-11 and Pg-10 this year, we will need to invest approximately an additional m in the project to fully commercialise the asset s potential. We hope to continue drilling a substantial number of wells over the next 10 years as part of our field development plan. Potential for around 15 additional wells. Further significant exploration potential is present within the current exploitation concession 15

16 Investment Recovery Stable fiscal regimes are imperative Ascent focuses its operations specifically on countries such which have stable fiscal and legislative regimes. The very significant investment required by Ascent and the sensitivity of our investment decisions to provide an adequate return means that fiscal stability is of primary important. Long term planning is essential For Ascent to make and recover our large investment requires that the Company, its subsidiaries and our partners are prepared to make long term planning decisions. Our existing investment will take many years to recover, however we are committed to maximising the value of the project for the benefit of our partners and Slovenia. 16

17 Conclusion Ascent is fully committed to Slovenia and making further investments therein. Petišovci Project, although not without risk, and with a requirement for further substantial investment, possesses: Tight gas technical challenges. A current absence of proven reserves. A requirement to prove the project s commerciality. Ascent is confident the field can be brought into commercial production for the benefit of all concerned. The field should help to provide significant energy security to Slovenia as well as employment and other associated revenues. 17