Longboat Energy, an emerging full-cycle E&P company active in Norway and Malaysia, is pleased today announced that Longboat JAPEX Norge has farmed down two exploration licences on the Norwegian Continental Shelf through an agreement with Concedo.

Summary

• In PL1182S, the Company has farmed down from 30% to 15% in return for a full carry of the  Lotus exploration well, up to an agreed cap above the dry well budget, which is expected to spud in Q3 2024
•  In PL1049 which contains the Jasmine and Sjøkreps prospects, Longboat JAPEX has farmed down from 40% to 25% in return for Concedo carrying 15% of the Company's 2024 exploration expenditure

Lotus exploration well (Company currently 30%)

Licence PL1182S lies in the prolific Northern North Sea, 4 km southeast of the Company's recent significant Kveikje discovery where Longboat JAPEX is a 10% equity partner.

The Lotus prospect (also named the Kjøttkake prospect by the licence operator) is comprised of Palaeocene injectite sandstones, characterised by excellent reservoir properties, and is supported by seismic amplitudes. Longboat JAPEX exploited its significant knowledge of injectite reservoirs, which are also the main reservoir in the Kveikje discovery, to secure the Lotus prospect in last year's APA 2022 licencing round.

Based on the internal estimates, Lotus contains gross mean prospective resources of 27 mmboe* with further potential upside estimated at 44 mmboe*. The chance of success is 54%* with the key risk being hydrocarbon retention.

If successful, Lotus/Kjøttkake is likely to form part of an area cluster development together with Kveikje and several other recent discoveries in the area, through infrastructure associated with the nearby giant Troll field.

The Lotus prospect will be drilled using the semi-submersible Deepsea Yantai and is expected to be drilled during Q3 2024. The licence partnership includes DNO Norge AS (40%, op) and Aker BP ASA (30%).

PL1049 Jasmine and Sjøkreps (Company currently 40%)

Longboat Energy Norge initially held 25% in PL1049 where the deep Cambozola prospects was drilled in 2022. The target for further exploration in the licence is the shallower levels and the licence has been stratigraphically split.  Two prospects have been mapped, Sjøkreps and Jasmine, both targeting Tertiary plays. The area is covered with new modern high quality seismic data and combined with new processing techniques, there is significant potential to de-risk the exploration prospects.

Sjøkreps is a fault-bounded three-way dip closure at Palaeocene level and has preliminary estimated recoverable volumes ranging between 20 to 300 mmboe** (P90-P10) with the main risk being presence and quality of reservoir.

The Jasmine prospect is an injectite target at Eocene level, which is analogous to the Kveikje discovery, and has recoverable volume range preliminarily estimated between 10 to 30 mmboe*** (P90-P10) with the main risk being reservoir presence and quality.

The work programme consists of seismic studies, potential seismic reprocessing and integration of results from ongoing and near-term wells targeting the same interval in the area, which combined have the potential to significantly improve the Chances of Success ahead of making a drill decision. The potential drilling decision has to be made by February 2025.

Helge Hammer, Chief Executive of Longboat, commented:
"We are pleased to announce the successful farm down of the two Norwegian exploration licences and the full carry of the Lotus exploration well cost, which is in line with our strategy to retain exposure to high quality exploration wells but at minimum use of the Company's equity capital, and we remain fully focussed on delivering on our plans to grow production and reserves in high quality assets in Norway and in SE Asia."

* Resource figures and chance of success estimates on Lotus are from Longboat JAPEX's APA2022 application.
** Operator estimate
*** LJN estimate