Company Information for Wessex Exploration Plc

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Company Statement

Wessex Exploration plc is a hydrocarbon exploration company with interests in offshore Guyane (formerly French Guiana), Juan de Nova (Mozambique Channel), Southern England and the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) (North West Africa).

Wessex holds a 1.25% interest in the Guyane Maritime licence which is operated by Hardman Petroleum France SAS, a subsidiary of Tullow Oil (“Tullow”). The licence area sits on a fairway that was once conjugate to the new oilfields being discovered off Ghana and Sierra Leone in West Africa. In November and December 2009, Tullow announced farm-outs of 33% and 25% interests in the licence to Shell and Total respectively.

In the Mozambique Channel northwest of the island of Madagascar, Wessex holds a 70% interest in the Juan de Nova Est permit. The permit area lies approximately 100 km west of the large heavy oil occurrences of Tsimimoro and Bemolanga, now being exploited by Madagascar Oil Limited in partnership with Total.

Wessex also holds interests in three licences in the Wessex Basin in Southern England and two exploration blocks in the SADR.

Operations and Technology

United Kingdom

PEDL 089 - WESSEX 30%
PED 238 - WESSEX 50%
PED 239 - WESSEX 25%

These southern Hampshire licences are located on the northern flank of Wessex Basin close to the prolific Wytch Farm oilfield (500 million barrels recoverable), the largest onshore oilfield in western Europe.
The licence lies in an area into which oil is believed to have migrated east of the main hydrocarbon trap at the Wytch Farm oilfield. This situation is understood to be the result of the basin configuration at the time of the oil migration. Early formed structures of the Pre-Upper Cretaceous age, are potential traps for the migrating oil.

PEDL 238 - WESSEX - 50%

PEDL 238, lying in the Wessex Basin, is located north of the BP operated Wytch Farm oilfield and covers an area of 208 square kilometres. The licence area contains several seismically defined un-drilled prospects.

A high resolution ground gravity survey has been conducted over the area by the licence partners. Following interpretation, the results of this survey are considered to be very encouraging and confirm the prospectivity of the area

WESSEX BASIN - PEDL 239 - WESSEX  - 25%

PEDL 239 is also located within the Wessex Basin, over the southern portion of the Isle of Wight, covering and area of 170 square kilometres. The directors of Wessex consider the area, which contains several leads, to be highly prospective. Acreage over the Isle of Wight is held by other UK E&P companies including Northern Petroleum and Encore Oil.

Guyane

WESSEX 1.25%

Wessex, in alliance with Northern Petroleum has incorporated Northpet Investments, a company registered in the United Kingdom that holds a 2.5% interest in the Exclusive Exploration Licence (EEL) covering a vast offshore area of Guyane (a French prefecture previously called French Guiana).

In 2007, Hardman Resources, the original licensee, was acquired by Tullow Oil PLC ("Tullow") who have executed a through re-evaluation of the licence area.  In addition to the robust and very large Matamata prospect in the far north of the permit, Tullow have identified deep water stratigraphic leads similar to their Jubilee Field discovery in Ghana, on the conjugate margin in Africa.

There are several features on the acreage with potential oil-in-place reserves in the billion barrel range.

On 11 November 2009 Tullow announced that it had reached an agreement to farm down a 33% interest in this licence to Shell. The agreement includes the option to acquire an additional 12% stake at a later date. Further to this on 8 December 2009 Tullow announced that it had farmed down a 25% interest in the licence to Total S.A. Both these announcements are positive for Wessex, illustrating the potential high value and importance of this exploration project.

Juan De Nova Est - Mozambique Channel
WESSEX - 70%

Wessex holds 70% of the Juan de Nova Est permit (subject to French Government approval) covering 9,010 square kilometres in the Mozambique Channel, northwest off the island of Madagascar.

The permit lies approximately 100 kilometres northwest of the very large heavy oil occurrences of Tsimimoro and Bemolanga, now being exploited by Madagascar Oil, in partnership with Total. The permit is underlain by a thick stratigraphic section of Paleozoic and Mesozoic rocks, and appears to have multiple petroleum systems. Technical evaluation has already commenced and farm-in partners will be sought in due course.

Western Sahara - Northwest Africa
WESSEX - 50%

In March 2006, Maghreb Exploration, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wessex, together with two other UK companies were awarded by the Government of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) a production sharing contract over the onshore Bojador block covering 9,880,000 acres.

In early 2007, a transaction was agreed whereby Comet Petroleum, 100% holder of the offshore Guelta block, agreed to cross-assignment of interests with the Bojador block group.

Previously (early sixties) onshore and offshore drilling, as well as seismic, the Mesozoic Aaiun Basin has proven the occurrence of all the elements of a petroleum system. The existence of good reservoir rocks, potential mature source rocks, and structure creating traps are relatively well documented, however, other elements such as hydrocarbon generation, migration timing and pathways, and actual entrapment, are still poorly defined.

Geographical Spread

UK , Africa

Board of Directors and Key Management

Broker/Analyst Reports

15/12/09 - Westhouse Securities

Major Shareholders

Most Recent Statement