31 August 2006
Interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2006
Plectrum Petroleum Plc ("Plectrum", "The Company", or "The Group")
Plectrum Petroleum PLC, the AIM listed oil & gas exploration company, today announces its un-audited interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2006.
Plectrum was established to make full use of newly emerging technologies such as electro-magnetic imaging as an additional screening tool, applying them to a balanced global portfolio of offshore exploration opportunities in order to prioritise and take forward only the very best exploration prospects.
Highlights
In the six month period, Plectrum:
 made significant progress in establishing itself within the industry, including institutional shareholders and host governments:
agreed a joint venture with Gold Oil Plc in Peru and applied to PeruPetro for an Exploration and Exploitation Licence in respect of Block Z-34, offshore Peru:
signed an agreement for the acquisition of a 50% interest in the Nabeul Prospect Licence, offshore Tunisia:
applied for exploration licences offshore Australia (subsequently awarded 9 August 2006) and UK West of Shetlands; and
raised a further £2,500,000 before expenses from institutional investors.
Commenting on the company's progress over the first half, Mike Whyatt, Executive Chairman, said:
"Emphasis has been on establishing ourselves in areas which we believe will lend themselves to the application of modern exploration techniques, particularly electromagnetic imaging. We are delighted that we have been successful in completing this process in Australia and Tunisia. We have created sustained growth in our portfolio in exciting areas with significant potential value. We expect the momentum to continue over the next few months with the start of operations in Tunisia and Australia. We are also hopeful that our exploration contract negotiations in Peru can be brought to a successful conclusion in the near future. We have achieved significant progress whilst keeping our overhead at a minimum and I am pleased that our underlying monthly running costs remain below £50,000 net."
Operational Review
Acquisition of REAP Tunisia GmbH, including operatorship and 50% working interest in the 3352 km2 Nabeul Block located in the Gulf of Hammamet, offshore Tunisia. The Company has committed to a minimum work programme of £2.5 million to be completed over the next 17 months. Following approval of the acquisition by the Tunisian authorities on 22 July, the deal was completed on 11 August 2006. The Nabeul Block covers 3352 km2 (equivalent to 13 North Sea Blocks) and is in water depths of 250-800m. The initial Prospection Permit phase runs until 24 January 2008 and three further exploration periods of up to 5 years each are also available. Several prospective structures have already been identified in the Birsa sand fairway play in the Block that are capable of trapping oil volumes in excess of 100 mmboe.
On 9 August, the Company was granted exploration permits WA-379-P and WA-380-P within the Bremer Basin, offshore Western Australia by the Commonwealth-Western Australia Offshore Petroleum Joint Authority. Plectrum made the applications in April this year and the awards were made as part of the Australian government's 2005 competitive bid round. Plectrum has a 100% working interest and operatorship of this very large area (18,730 km2), and has committed to a guaranteed work programme totalling A$6.7mm over the two permit areas during the first three years of the six year term. Recent work on the petroleum prospectivity of the Exploration Permits (Bradshaw 2005*) has demonstrated the potential for discovery of 500 million barrel oil accumulations.
The Company has formed a joint venture with Gold Oil Plc in respect of the 3713 km2 Block Z-34 offshore Peru. Qualification of Plectrum as an approved contractor was received from PeruPetro S.A on 7 July 2006. The joint venture has entered into exclusive negotiations with PeruPetro to convert the previous Promotional Licence into a full Exploration and Exploitation Contract. Block Z-34 sits in the prolific Talara Basin which has produced to date in excess of 1.7 billion barrels of oil and 340 billion cubic feet of gas. The block, which is equivalent to 14 North Sea Blocks, sits adjacent to existing producing concessions in water depths of 100-3000m, yet has a sparse existing data set of just 500km 2D seismic. The initial work programme will be to acquire a conventional modern seismic grid and enhance these data with marine magnetotelluric (MMT) and Electro-Magnetic (EM) studies.
Plectrum applied for a promote licence in the UK 24th Round of Offshore Licensing on 16 June 2006. Awards are expected to be announced sometime in September/October 2006.
Results (comparative figures are for the 10 months to 31 December 2005)
The loss for the period of 6 months to 30 June 2006, before and after tax, was £1,049,781 (£1,256,571), including amortisation of goodwill of £626,338 (£313,169).
Expenditure on projects in the period, mainly in Tunisia and Peru, has increased significantly to £117,908 from £2,208 for the 10 months of last year. Administrative costs net of interest on bank deposits, were running at approximately £50,000 per month during the period.
In 2005, the activities of Table Mountain Minerals Plc accounted for expenditure of £543,415.
On 26 May 2006, we announced the placing with institutions of 17,857,143 new ordinary shares of 5p at 14p each, raising £2,500,000 before expenses.
Outlook
In the first six months of 2006, the Plectrum team has made good progress towards building a portfolio of exciting exploration assets in Tunisia, Peru and Western Australia. The next year will be focused on completing 2D seismic surveys and EM modeling of the acreage obtained, and in adding further exploration acreage to the portfolio.
For further information please contact:
Plectrum Petroleum Plc
Tel: 01330 826710
Mike Evans, Chief Operating Officer
Jim Bain, Finance Director
www.plectrum.co.uk
Aquila Financial Ltd
Tel: 020 7 202 2600
Peter Reilly
Vivienne Macey
www.aquila-financial.com
Corporate Synergy
Tel: 020 7 448 4400
Oliver Cairns
David Seal
*BRADSHAW, B.E. (Compiler) 2005. Geology and Petroleum Potential of the Bremer Sub-basin, offshore southwestern Australia. Geoscience Australia Record 2005/21.
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