31 December 2021 

Advance Energy plc

("Advance Energy" or the "Company") 

Buffalo-10 Well Drilling Commenced

Advance Energy (AIM:ADV), the energy company seeking growth through acquisition or farm-in to non-operated interests in discovered upstream projects, is pleased to announce that the Valaris JU-107 jack-up drilling rig has commenced operations at the Buffalo-10 well location, offshore Timor-Leste.

The Operator, Carnarvon Petroleum Timor, Lda., has advised that the drilling rig has successfully concluded the ready to operate process and has drilled the surface hole and installed the surface casing. The well is currently drilling ahead in the 17 ½" hole section at a depth of approximately 120 metres.

The rig will drill the 17 ½" hole to the planned section depth of approximately 800 metres followed by setting of the 13 ³/₈" casing. The 12 ¼" hole section will then be drilled to approximately 2,800 metres before setting the 9 ⁵/₈" casing.

No hydrocarbons are anticipated to be intersected in these first two sections of the well. 

The Buffalo-10 well is being drilled offshore Timor-Leste within the TL- SO T19-14 Production Sharing Contract in a water depth of approximately 30 metres with a target depth of approximately 3,500 metres.

The well is being drilled to test for the presence of commercial quantities of high-quality light oil that is expected to lead to the early re-development of the Buffalo field.

Leslie Peterkin, CEO of Advance Energy, commented:

"We are delighted to hear this progress from the Operator as we hit another operational milestone. The joint venture is working hard to conclude the drilling program in the coming weeks and remains confident that the Buffalo-10 well will be a geological and economic success. We look forward to providing further updates in due course."

Enquiries:

About the Buffalo Project

The Buffalo Project objective involves redeveloping the Buffalo oil field in the Timor Sea. The field resides in only 30 metres of water with a reservoir depth between 3,200 and 3,300 meters below the sea bed.

The previous field proved the existence of very high deliverability reservoir containing high quality light oil that is expected to sell at a premium to Brent in today's market.

RISC Advisory certified the mid case recoverable volume in the Buffalo field to be 34 MMstb (gross, 2C contingent resource), and the primary objective of the Buffalo-10 well is to demonstrate the presence of a significant, previously undrilled attic oil accumulation and for this resource to be converted to 2P reserves.

Furthermore, the CPR developed by RISC in March 2021 has demonstrated that an economic development of the 1C resource of 16 MMstb would be viable down to an oil price of $35. It is therefore considered that there is a strong likelihood that the Buffalo-10 well will confirm an economic development project, with RISC's CPR stating that: "RISC estimate the probability of development to be 86%."

For the above reasons, the Operator is working on plans to compress the timeline to first production once the Buffalo-10 well confirms a commercial oil resource. These plans include engaging with industry for supply and installation of suitable equipment to produce the oil.

For further information, please visit www.advanceplc.com and @advanceplc on Twitter

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The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 as it forms part of United Kingdom domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.