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ROC Oil to Settle the Dispute With Pioneer Natural Resources
09-07-2008
ROC announces that, its wholly
owned subsidiary, Roc Oil (Equatorial Guinea) Company ("ROC EG") and its co-venturers
Atlas Petroleum International Limited ("Atlas") and Osborne Resources Limited
("Osborne") have entered into an agreement to settle the dispute with Pioneer
Natural Resources Equatorial Guinea Limited ("Pioneer"), a wholly owned
subsidiary of Dallas based Pioneer Natural Resources Company with regard to
Blocks H15 and H16 (collectively "Block H"), Offshore Equatorial Guinea.
The dispute related to the 2004 farm-in, whereby Pioneer acquired a 20% interest
in the Block H Production Sharing Contract and Joint Venture from ROC.
Key terms of the dispute settlement are as follows:
1. Payment by Pioneer to ROC, Atlas and Osborne of US$5.5 million (ROC net:
US$2.75 million);
2. Assignment by Pioneer of its 50% interest in the PSC and under the JVOA to
ROC, Atlas and Osborne. As a result, ROC will hold a 37.5% interest in Block H;
3. Pioneer Natural Resources USA Inc. will assign to ROC an option to use the
Aban Abraham drilling rig to drill the proposed Aleta-1 well. The rig is
currently expected to be available in 2H 2009.
Settlement of the dispute is subject to relevant Government approvals for
assignment of the Pioneer interest and satisfaction of conditions in the rig
contract relating to assignment of the rig.
Participating Interests in the Block H Joint Venture are:
ROC EG (Technical Manager)
Pre-Settlement 18.750%
Post-Settlement 37.50%
Atlas (Operator)
Pre-Settlement 28.125%
Post-Settlement 56.25%
Osborne
Pre-Settlement 3.125%
Post-Settlement 6.25%
Pioneer
Pre-Settlement 50.000%
Mr Bruce Clement, ROC’s Acting Chief Executive
Officer stated that:
"ROC views this as a good outcome for all parties. ROC will now seek to bring in
a new partner to participate in the drilling of the Aleta prospect, an
interpreted Cretaceous channel sand body with stacked potential reservoirs. ROC
considers the prospect to have an unrisked mean recoverable reserve potential in
the primary target reservoir of the order of 170 million barrels gross ranging
up to 500 million barrels gross, if all potential reservoirs are considered,
with a series of follow-on prospects and leads."
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