Ramco Energy Receives Contingent ACG Payment

Ramco Energy

Ramco Energy plc announced that the condition necessary to trigger the receipt of a further US $5 million (£3.5 million), in connection with the disposal of its interest in the Azeri Chirag Gunashli (ACG) Fields offshore Azerbaijan, has been fulfilled.

The sale of Ramco's ACG interest was concluded last year, but US $5 million of the aggregate consideration of US $150 million remained conditional on the ACG consortium sanctioning the next phase of the field development. The ACG Steering Committee has recently confirmed that decision. Ramco is now entitled to receive a total of US $5 million from the purchasers of the interest, Amerada Hess, Devon Energy and Unocal.

Ramco reported an exceptional pre-tax gain of £67.7 million on the disposal of its ACG interest in its accounts for the year ended 31 December 2000. This contingent element of the disposal proceeds did not form a part of that gain and as a result its receipt will benefit the current year's profit and loss account.

Ramco was a founding partner in the ACG consortium, offshore Azerbaijan. Ramco held a 2.0825% fully carried interest in the field, which is estimated to hold 4.2 billion barrels of proven and probable reserves.

Ramco announced on December 22, 2000 that the US $ 150 million sale of its 2.0825% carried interest in the ACG field Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) had been declared unconditional, following the conclusion of the pre-emption process. That process resulted in three companies sharing in the purchase of the 2.0825% Ramco interest, those companies being - Amerada Hess (1.0413%), Devon Energy (0.8087%) and Unocal (0.2325%). Ramco received its first ACG sale payment of US $55 million earlier this year. Two further payments of US $45 million each are due in February 2002 and February 2003. These outstanding amounts are generating interest at 0.3% above 6 month US $ LIBOR.


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