News

August 14, 2009

EnCore’s Results For The Year Ended June 2009 Emphasise The Importance Of The Breagh Sale

In his Chairman’s review accompanying AIM listed EnCore Oil’s results for the year ended June 30 2009 Michael Lynch says: “Arguably, the most significant event of the year occurred following the year end. EnCore made a small gain on the sale of Amstel in the Netherlands. But the event he was referring to was the sale of its 15 per cent interest in the Breagh gas field in the North Sea to RWE Dea. Too right it was significant. The consideration of US $68.8 million (£42million) due to complete in September, has transformed the group’s vulnerable balance sheet.

You can look at the sale two ways. First you can say that it has saved the company’s bacon following its unfortunate foray into gas storage in the period under review. Its main storage scheme, in the North Sea in the Esmond field on the Esmond and Gordon licences in Block 43/13a, caused great excitement when it first came to investors’ attention. There is a shortage of storage capacity in the UK and concerns about energy security.

EnCore had ambitious plans for a 145 billion...