Northern has a 1.25 per cent. beneficial interest in a permit covering the whole of the offshore territory of Guyane, previously French Guiana, beyond the 12 mile coastal limit. The Permit covers some 65,000 square kilometres. Hardman Resources Limited is the Operator and holds a 97.5 per cent. interest in the Permit.
In 2003 Hardman recorded a 7500km. 2-D seismic regarded to be of excellent quality to supplement 3,945km. of 2-D seismic data recorded in the 1970s by Elf, Shell and Esso. This resulted in six prospects or leads in excess of one billion barrels of potential recoverable reserves being defined.
Northern owns 50 per cent. of a company owning a 2.5 per cent. interest in the Permit. The key terms of the Permit are as follows:
no royalty or annual lease payments
33.3 per cent. net profits tax from production in the first three years seismic programme, now completed
in the following two years, a requirement to drill one exploratory well.
It is estimated that the Matamata Prospect alone could contain recoverable reserves of the order of 500 million to 5.6 billion barrels with the estimated mean recoverable reserves calculated to be 2.4 billion barrels (30 million net to Northern).
Hardman Managing Director Simon Potter comments:
"The two areas that really interest me and are receiving a lot of focus are the Falkland Islands and our acreage in French Guyane.
"I'm particularly interested in our property in French Guyane. We hold over 97% equity in the license which covers some 65,000 sq km, the entire offshore to 3000 metres water depth. In hydrocarbon terms it's sandwiched between the offshore provinces of Trinidad and Venezuela and Brazil so it's a good piece of real estate. The offshore prospects are well defined and we can see good structures from the seismic similar to the channel features seen in Mauritania. There's also a compelling single, huge structure called Matamata. We're required to drill a well within the next 15 months as a part of the licence obligation. Our current strategy is to farm down from the 97% and bring in a partner to contribute to the drilling of that well.
"With our Guyane property we've followed the traditional success route that Hardman has taken in the past, which is to have high equity, early access to prospective frontier exploration properties. We've traditionally dramatically farmed down our share, but in future I would like to see us maintain a higher equity stake (up to 40%). We're now well over a billion dollar company, so can afford to retain higher equity and tolerate greater amounts of risk. As we bring in new partners we will look to swap assets rather than simply seek contributions to funding or a carry."
HDR
hardman resources limited
