As announced on 19 January 2023, Orcadian Energy made three licence applications, two in partnership with other companies and one on its own. One of the applications builds upon Orcadian’s viscous oil experience, and is focused on a discovery with a very large oil in place (c. 900 MMbbl) ('First Licence Application'). The other two applications are focused on gas opportunities, one in the Central North Sea, on the mid-North Sea High, which has a number of shallow gas prospects ('Second Licence Application'); and the other in the Southern North Sea which is a potential gas-to-wire project on an appraised discovery, with integrated carbon capture, which could deliver baseload electricity with minimal emissions ('Third Licence Application'). Early stage indications suggest that, net to Orcadian, the P50 sales gas resource applied for, across the two gas focused applications, could amount to 114 bcf (billion cubic feet) in a discovery, 153 bcf in a near drill-ready prospect and 377 bcf in leads and less mature prospects. However, these are management estimates of resources, are based upon seismic and well log data, are as presented to the NSTA in the Licence Applications, and are provided here for guidance purposes only.

The Directors had previously anticipated that they would hear as to whether the licence applications had been successful during third quarter 2023. As announced by the Company on 7 November 2023, the NSTA has announced a first tranche of awards but this did not cover any of the blocks Orcadian had applied for, as further assessments were required. The Company has now received notice from the NSTA that the NSTA will likely publish the results of the 33rd Licencing round in two further tranches, dependant of the level of further assessment required.

The licences to be granted as part of the results from tranche two are expected be announced in January 2024; and the results from the third and final tranche is anticipated to be later in 1Q 2024.

The Company currently believes that the decision on the First Licence Application and the Second Licence Application will be made during the tranche two process. Further announcements will be made at that time.

Steve Brown, Orcadian’s CEO, said:
"The Directors believe the Company has a number of potentially significant value-adding items on the horizon, including completion of the deal with Ping following necessary approvals and consents, and the results from the licence applications during the first quarter 2024. We look forward to updating the market in due course."

In a separate announcement Orcadian reports that the company raised gross proceeds of £500,000 through the issue of 3,571,429 new ordinary shares of the Company at a price per New Ordinary Share of £0.14. These funds are raised as part of a direct subscription with the Company with existing investors. The subscription price represents a discount of approximately 15% to the closing mid-price of an ordinary share in the Company of 16.5p on 15 December 2023, being the latest practicable day prior to the publication of this announcement.

The proceeds of this fundraising will be applied to ongoing short term working capital and the costs involved in the progression of the Sale and Purchase agreement with Ping Petroleum UK plc announced on 7 December 2023.

KeyFacts Energy: Orcadian Energy UK country profile