Baron Oil Plc (LON:BOIL), the AIM-quoted oil and gas exploration company focused on opportunities in SE Asia, UK and Latin America, has announced its unaudited interim financial information and results for the six months ended 30 June 2021.
Key Points
· Consolidation of interests in Timor-Leste Chuditch PSC – Baron Oil now has a 75% interest
· Critical 3D seismic reprocessing by TGS to define Chuditch prospectivity underway
· Agreed increase in interest in UK licence P2478 containing the large Dunrobin prospect
· Acceleration of Dunrobin subsurface evaluation with Baron’s technical oversight
· First half of 2022 set to be a key period for both Chuditch and Dunrobin
Financial
· Available cash (excluding monies held as security for bank guarantees in Peru and Timor-Leste) as at 30 June 2021 of £2,515,000 (30 June 2020: £1,798,000; 31 December 2020: £1,190,000). Successful Placing and Subscription raising £3 million (gross) announced on 24 March 2021.
· In April 2021, the Company increased its stake in SundaGas (Timor-Leste Sahul) Pte. Ltd (“TLS”) to a controlling interest of 85% at a cash cost of US$1,243,000; and acquired the remaining 15% on 17 June 2021 in exchange for the issue of 1,157,202,885 ordinary shares in the Company. Baron was not required to make any further contribution to the bank guarantee deposit. The full value of the guarantee deposit of US$1,000,000 is now consolidated, with US$667,000 shown as a payable to SundaGas Pte. Ltd.
· Net loss after finance costs and tax of £117,000 (30 June 2020: net loss of £703,000; year to 31 December 2020: net loss of £920,000), representing a loss of 0.002p per share (30 June 2020: 0.020p; year to 31 December 2020: 0.023p).
· There is a gain of £359,000 arising on the deemed disposal of the interest in an associated undertaking under IFRS3 that arises on the acquisition of the remaining equity in SundaGas (Timor-Leste Sahul) Pte. Ltd (see note 7 of the Interim Financial Statements).
· Increase in administration expenses largely arises from consolidation of TLS, which was previously accounted for as an associated undertaking, for part of the period for the first time, and a severance payment to a former director.
Andy Yeo, Chief Executive commented:
“We believe that the success in securing the significantly increased interest in the Chuditch PSC places Baron Oil in a strong position to deliver material value for shareholders. The ongoing sophisticated technical work and the scale of the mean Prospective Resources, now independently evaluated to be an aggregate of 592MMBOE (gross), are believed to be of a sufficient level to attract the interest of major regional gas players and other potential funding partners. The Company anticipates initiating discussions with a range of such parties from September 2020 onwards. In addition, we have been able to accelerate progress in the UK on Licence P2478 as well as increasing our interest in the potentially large Dunrobin prospect.
“The first half of 2022 will be an important period for Baron for both Chuditch and P2478.”
