thailand reserves update

Pan Orient Announces 2009 Year-End Thailand Reserves Update


8:43 AM ET, March 30, 2010


CALGARY, ALBERTA, Mar 30, 2010 (Marketwire via COMTEX) -- Pan Orient Energy Corp. (POE) announced the results of its December 31, 2009 independent reserves evaluation.

The evaluation was conducted by Gaffney, Cline & Associates (Consultants) Pte. Ltd. of Singapore ("Gaffney Cline") for the Thailand assets and was prepared in accordance with National Instrument 51-101 Standards of Disclosure for Oil and Gas Activities.

Reserves in Thailand at December 31, 2009 have been assigned to Concession L44/43, including the production license for SW1A. The December 31, 2009 Thailand reserves evaluation does not include any contingent resources that are anticipated to be assigned to Concession L53/48 (in which Pan Orient has a 100% working interest).

A contingent resource report for the 2009 L53-A oil discovery in Concession L53/48 is anticipated to be completed by late April 2010 and will form the basis of a production license application to be submitted to the Government of Thailand. Since the beginning of January the L53-A well has produced approximately 12,500 barrels of crude oil to tanks under a 90 day production test which expires on April 2nd. It is expected that a production license will be granted by the end of July, and at that time production will resume and the crude oil inventory will be sold.

Thailand Concession L44/43 Reserves Summary and Highlights:

- Proved reserves ("1P") of 9.5 million barrels, a 71% increase from December 31, 2008

- Proved plus probable reserves ("2P") of 36.7 million barrels, a 47% increase from December 31, 2008.

- Proved, probable and possible reserves ("3P") of 85.6 million barrels, a 55% increase from December 31, 2008.

- Pan Orient had average oil sales of 4,496 barrels per day in 2009. Reserve replacement of 2009 oil sales was approximately 3.4 times based on proved reserves and 8.1 times based on proved and probable reserves.

- The 2009 reserves growth in Concession L44/43 is attributed entirely to exploration success with new pool oil discoveries made at NSE-F1, Bo Rang A, Bo Rang B, L44-W, NSE-J1, Si Thep-2 and NSE-H3. The vast majority of estimated 2P reserve additions are generally evenly distributed across four main fields: Bo Rang A, Bo Rang B, NSE-F1 and NSE Central providing greater depth to the overall reserve base in comparison to any prior year.

- The L44/43 reserve additions are net of an approximately 6.6 million barrel negative technical revision of the December 31, 2008 2P estimate for the NSE Central field that was primarily a result of recognition that NSE Central and NSE-F1 are distinctly separate pools.

- The net present value of proved and probable reserves after tax in Concession L44/43, using forecast prices and discounted at 10%, is Cdn$459 million and represents $9.68 per Pan Orient share.