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Abu Dhabi, 28 February 2008 - Aabar Energy PJSC (“Aabar”) announces that its wholly owned subsidiary Pearl Energy Limited (“Pearl”) has entered into a farm-out arrangement with Horizon Oil Limited (“Horizon”) to transfer 20% participating interest in three exploration concessions offshore in the Gulf of Thailand.
Under the terms of the transaction, Horizon will pay 40% of the seismic and drilling costs of the initial three-year work programs for Blocks G1/48, G3/48 and G6/48 to earn a 20% participating interest in each of the three concessions. Pearl will remain as operator of the concessions following the transaction, which is conditional upon the approval of the Thai authorities. Following completion of the transaction, Pearl subsidiaries will hold a 40% working interest in each of the concession areas, while Northern Gulf Petroleum Pte Ltd (“Northern Gulf”) and its group companies will hold 40% and Horizon subsidiaries 20%.
“We continue to mitigate risk associated with exploration across our portfolio although we remain very optimistic about the potential for oil and gas discoveries in the Gulf of Thailand following the continued success of our flagship Jasmine oil development in Block B5/27. Horizon has proved to be a valuable partner in previous exploration in Thailand and we look forward to working together in these three new areas,” said Chris Gibson-Robinson, Aabar’s VP Operations and VP New Business Development (Southeast Asia).
Background
Aabar is an oil and gas exploration and production company headquartered in Abu Dhabi and is a public joint stock company listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Market. Aabar, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Pearl Energy, is engaged in upstream activities in Southeast Asia, where its net production is currently around 19,000 barrels of oil per day.
The group’s participating interest in the G1/48 and G6/48 concessions is held by Pearl (Amata) Limited, while interest in the G3/48 concession is held by Pearl Oil (Aoa Thai) Limited. Both companies are wholly owned subsidiaries of Pearl.
Horizon (HZN:AX; www.horizonoil.com.au) is an Australian incorporated and listed oil and gas exploration and production company with exploration, development and production interests in New Zealand, China, Thailand, Papua New Guinea and USA. Upon completion of the transactions, the group’s participating interest in the G1/48 concession will be held by Horizon Oil (G1) Limited while the participating interests in the G3/48 and G6/48 concessions will be held by Horizon Oil (G3)
Limited.
Northern Gulf is a privately held petroleum exploration and production company headquartered in Thailand with petroleum interests in Asia.
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