Cuba

Ascent has identified the Caribbean and Latin America regions as highly prospective for oil and gas, where the team’s industry experience, existing relationships and skill set can add considerable value for shareholders.

Our strategy is to build attractive production and appraisal portfolios at low operational costs, creating high-reward growth opportunities through Ascent’s new subsidiary vehicle Ascent Hispanic Ventures.

Cuba offers excellent fiscal and commercial terms for oil and gas operators, as well as access to solid infrastructure and an educated workforce.

Ascent has identified target acquisitions, taking advantage of the current low oil price environment to secure advantageous entry terms, with the aim of developing a broad Cuban portfolio across both oil and gas.

• The first transaction in the Company’s Caribbean entry is the acquisition of Energetical Limited, a UK Company with exclusive rights to secure a PSC on a producing onshore Cuban oil licence Block 9B.
• The second building block in the Caribbean builds on Cuban momentum with the signature of 3 binding MOUs with Cuban national oil company CUPET over 7,000km2 exploration licenses onshore the northern coast of Cuba.

Block 9B

Block 9B contains the Majaguillar and San Anton onshore fields, is on the North coast of Cuba, some 120 km East of Havana and currently produces 190 bbls/day gross from three wells. There are eight wells on these fields in total, all of which have previously produced and have workover potential.

The Company has initially assessed that recovery rates could be significantly rejuvenated with the simple and relatively low cost addition of basic equipment and reservoir management.  It is also assessing the viability of new deviated onshore wells drilled into the crest of the fields which it expects to flow with an initial production rate in excess of 1,000 bopd. None of these operations require new seismic and none of the wells have yet to produce any water and no oil water contact has been identified. There are another three wells at Majaguillar and the San Anton field that are shut in at this time mainly due to the lack of basic equipment such as pumps.

Block 9a (1,000 km2)

Block 9a is an onshore block situated adjacent to acreage with a proven hydrocarbon system and on trend with the Varadero producing oil field. The Northern portion of the block is most prospective with limited but modern seismic data already available and approximately 30 historic wells which have penetrated primarily the shallow subsurface. Many of these wells encountered oil shows. Having conducted an initial review of the available data and in consultation with CUPET further prospectivity has been identified in the traditional Placetus carbonate reservoirs and in overlying fractured volcanic/ophiolite plays of the Zaza tectonic structural unit (‘TSU’).

Block 12 (2,750 km2)

Block 12 is a high potential onshore block with opportunities in multiple plays; Zaza (Ophiolite), Placetas, Camajuani and Remedios tectonic stratigraphic units. The block has been drilled 9 times, all of which were pre 1960s and all of which exhibited oil shows. Encouragingly, adjacent blocks have been drilled in more recent years with oil shows and discoveries having been made. The Company has identified the potential to generate a portfolio of exploration prospects after evaluation of the existing seismic and well data, including seismic reprocessing and structural modelling.

Block 15 (3,200 km2)

Block 15 is an onshore exploration block with good quality seismic across the central part and 3 historic wells. The Company has identified the northern half of the block as the most attractive section with initial analysis highlighting potential in multiple play types of the Remedios, Placetus and Camajuani tectonic structural units. Again this potential could be unlocked following reprocessing of the seismic data, integrating existing well data, and structurally modelling the subsurface.

Ascent has been involved in Slovenia for over 10 years where it operates the Petišovci Tight Gas Project.  To date it has invested around ‎€50 million in this project, which is currently its principal asset. This asset has significant oil and gas reserves and resources and an established, production infrastructure with connections to local and export customers.  We firmly believe that the gas field at Petišovci is an outstanding prospect and until recently have focused all our resources on bringing this asset into production.

We continue to review additional onshore oil and gas opportunities in Central and Eastern Europe in order to grow the Company outside of Slovenia, leveraging our experience and relationships in the region.