Cluff Natural Resources awarded five gas licenses in the North Sea

Cluff Natural Resources Plc (CLNR) has been formally awarded five UK promote licences covering a total of eleven blocks by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

The specific licences and blocks awarded, all wholly owned by CLNR, are as follows:

• license 2252, bocks 41/5, 41/10, 42/1 - total area 715 km²
• license 2253, bocks 42/14b - total area 223.9 km²
• license 2259, bocks 43/3, 43/4b, 43/5 - total area 523.1 km²
• license 2261, bocks 43/7, 43/8, 43/9 - total area 716.5 km²
• license 2261, bocks 43/11 - total area 239.8 km²

The selected blocks are located in an under-explored, emerging gas province of the Southern North Sea, with diverse, high-potential play fairways and trap types in the Carboniferous. See a map showing the individual blocks awarded to CLNR:

http://ippjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/9123Y_-2014-12-4.pdf

Notable developments in the wider area include the completion of a multi-client 3-D survey (covering CLNR block 42/1 and part of CLNR blocks 41/5 and 41/10), the Pegasus West Gas Discovery (operated by Centrica, which flowed approximately 90MMscf/day on test from Namurian reservoirs), first gas production from the Breagh Field (operated by RWE Dea, estimated to contain nearly 600bcf of recoverable gas reserves) in October 2013 and on-going development of the Cygnus Gas Field (operated by GDF Suez) where first gas production is due in 2015.

The five licences are awarded on a 'Promote' basis and accordingly have nominal work programmes of obtaining and reprocessing 2-D seismic data, as well as a 90% reduction in annual rentals during the initial two year period. Firm drilling commitments are not required until the end of the second year of the Licences in December 2016, by which time a full geological evaluation and resource assessment will have been completed.

Algy Cluff, Chairman and Chief Executive of CLNR, commented:

"I am delighted to report that DECC has formally awarded our company these new gas licences in this emerging area of the Southern North Sea. CLNR already has a portfolio of eight offshore Underground Coal Gasification Licences totalling 613 km² in the UK and securing eleven North Sea gas blocks over 2,418 km² is a major achievement for the Company."