History

Nautical Petroleum plc was listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in April 2005. The Nautical idea was originated by the Masefield Group, a specialised energy trading company, who created International Energy Group AG (IEG) in 2004, to hold their asset based business interests.

An active programme resulted in the acquisition of two licenses in the UKCS and specialised heavy crude oil production processing equipment utilised for the successful Extended Well Test programme undertaken on the Mariner oil field by ChevronTexaco in 1997/1998.

All asset based interests acquired in this programme were transferred into IEG during 2004.

Subsequently a 75% interest in Nautical Petroleum AG, a subsidiary of IEG and the owner of licences 9/2b (Kraken) and 3/27a (Hydra), was transferred into Nautical Holdings Limited. This entity participated in the Reverse Takeover (RTO) in April 2005 which created Nautical Petroleum plc as a listed entity on AIM.

In July 2005, Nautical raised £8 million in a private placing. These funds were primarily used to acquire Alba Resources (Holdings) Limited in August 2005, which held a 26.67% interest in the 9/11a (Mariner) dDiscovery and operatorship of 2 exploration blocks, 9/11c (Mermaid) and 8/25a (Selkie).

In December 2005 Nautical signed an agreement to farm in to the St Laurent licence for a 22% interest, which contains the Grenade undeveloped onshore heavy oil field in South West France. The same month saw Nautical awarded 3 new blocks in the 23rd Licensing Round, including 8/5 & 9/1 (Scylla).

In June 2006 Nautical signed a comprehensive multi-licence farm-out agreement with Celtic Oil Ltd, part of the SK Corporation, Asia’s leading energy and petrochemical company. Celtic agreed to carry part of Nautical’s exploration expenditures on four blocks, primarily with regard to the drilling of wells in 2007 and 2008.

In February 2007, success in the UKCS 24th round resulted in 4 licences (3 Traditional and 1 Promote), comprising 7 blocks and part blocks, including 14/30a (Tudor Rose), 113/29 & 113/30 (Merrow) and 28/9 & 28/10b (Catcher).

September 2007 saw the successful farmout of 9/11c (Mermaid) to Silverstone.

In October 2007, Nautical successfully raised £20 million via a private placing and secured a £7.5 million bank facility with the Bank of Scotland (HBOS). 25% of 9/2b (Kraken) was farmed out to Canamens Energy North Sea Limited (Canamens), prior to the very successful drilling of the 9/2b-2 well, which confirmed a significant hydrocarbon column of at least 77m.

In the same month Statoil-Hydro, an expert Heavy Oil operator with significant experience interpreting Heimdal reservoirs, became operator of the 9/11a, replacing Chevron and re-energising the Mariner discovery project.

Some disappointing drilling results occurred between November 2007 and October 2008, however Nautical’s exposure was minimised due to the highly successful farmout arrangements entered into, which included the completion of farmouts on 8/25a (Selkie) and 3/27a (Hydra) with Canamens in September 2008.