Red Emperor farms into Hawkeye prospect. Drilling plans on schedule (Philippines)

Red Emperor Resources NL has today received formal notification from the Department of Energy of the Republic of the Philippines that approval for the assignment of the company’s 15% working interest in Block SC55 has been granted.

This was the final condition precedent to be met with respect to Red Emperor’s farm-in agreement with Otto Energy Limited, as announced on March 2, 2015. With all conditions now satisfied, the company confirms that the agreement has now been completed.

Red Emperor has also been advised by Otto that mobilisation of the Maersk Venturer drillship to the Hawkeye-1 well location remains on schedule to take place at the end of the month, with drilling operations to start soon after.

Greg Bandy, Red Emperor’s Managing Director, commented, “The Company is delighted to have received formal approval from the Philippines government and thanks them for their support. We also wish to thank shareholders for their patience with respect to this approval and look forward to updating them on the progress of this highly anticipated drilling campaign over the coming weeks.”

SC55 is located in the southwest Palawan Basin and covers an area of 9,880km2. It is a deep-water block in the middle of a proven regional oil and gas fairway that extends from the productive offshore Borneo region in the southwest to the offshore Philippine production assets northwest of Palawan.

The Hawkeye prospect was identified on 2D seismic in 2007 and further defined with a 600km2 3D seismic acquisition in late 2009. Hawkeye contains a ‘Best Estimate’ STOIIP of ~480 MMbbls of oil and a ‘Best Estimate’ Gross Prospective Resource of 112 MMbbls (RMP net 14.3 MMbbls) (refer to ASX announcement dated 2 March 2015).

[mappress mapid=”2244″]