Beach Increases Stake in Otway Permit

Essential Petroleum Resources, Ltd.

Australian independent Essential Petroleum Resources has accepted an offer from Beach Petroleum to increase its interest in the offshore Otway Basin permit, Block VIC/P46, from 17.5 percent to 50 percent.

EPR will retain a 25-percent interest in VIC/P46. It will be substantially carried by its joint-venture partners through a 3D seismic acquisition and drilling program expected to cost more than $20 million dollars.

By increasing its interest in VIC/P46 to 50 percent, under the provisions of the JV agreement, Beach will become the operator of the permit. EPR’s work in the permit has identified the primary sedimentological and tectonic mechanisms for reservoir development, and this has led to the identification of numerous prospects and leads.

EPR managing director John Remfry said that Beach's offer affirms EPR’s strategy of attracting funding in return for equity in its highly prospective acreage. Following the execution of a farmout agreement and the assignment of the interest to Beach Petroleum, participants in the VIC/P46 JV will be: Beach Petroleum Limited, 50 percent (operator); Mittwell Energy Resources, 25 percent; and EPR, 25 percent.


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