Empire Seeks to Double Its Tasmania Basin Program, With Applications SEL 4/2009 (Oil & Gas) and SEL 5/2009 (Coal Bed Methane)
May 30 2009 - 1:34AM
Business Wire
Empire Energy Corporation International (Empire) (OTCBB:EEGC.OB)
(OTCBB:EEGC) this week announced its intention to file the
Registration Statement with the SEC regarding the announced Rights
Issue in the coming week. The company filed an initial registration
statement on Monday May 11th and its latest quarterly report on
Wednesday May 20th. The Rights Issue will become available when the
registration is declared effective by the SEC.
The registration filing is the preliminary stage of the USD$9
million (AUD$12 million) Rights Issue. Shareholders of record on
December 18, 2008 are eligible to subscribe for one share for every
two shares held at that date at a price of US$ 7 cents (about AUD$
9 cents) per share. With the proceeds, Empire intends to expand
funding of the drilling campaign and pay outstanding due debts of
Empire and its subsidiaries, including Great South Land Minerals
Ltd.
SEL 13/1998, SEL 4/2009 and SEL 5/2009 total 38,677 square km
(14,933 square miles, 9.6 million acres)
A Special Exploration License (SEL) application for Coal Bed
Methane over an area of 11,227 square kilometres (4,335 square
miles, 2.8 million acres) of the Tasmania Basin, has been allocated
the reference SEL 5/2009 by Mineral Resources Tasmania for
assessment purposes. This complements the current drilling program
on Bellevue #1, as the Company expects to intersect and test
several seams over approximately 20m (65 feet) of coal. Empire
estimates that this coal may contain 1-2 cubic meters of methane
gas per square meter of coal within the Permian and Triassic
sequences, which are anticipated to occur between about 450m (1,476
feet) to 1,300m (4,265 feet) depth. This coal seam gas was first
tested by a predecessor company of Great South Land Minerals in a
well in Eastern Tasmania.
In addition, an SEL application for 12,040 square kilometres
(4,649 square miles, 3 million acres) for the eastern part of the
Tasmania Basin including offshore Storm Bay, adjacent to Empire�s
current 15,410 square kilometres (5,950 square miles, 3.8 million
acres) SEL 13/98, has been given the reference SEL 4/2009 for
assessment purposes.
Under the SEL 4/2009 application, Empire has proposed a 560
kilometre (348 mile) onshore seismic program and the acquisition
and processing of over 2,000 kilometres (1,242 miles) of offshore
seismic within Tasmanian (900km/559 miles) and Australian
Commonwealth (1,100 kilometres/683 miles) waters.
A privately funded 256 kilometre offshore 2-D seismic
acquisition program was carried out with an Australian Government
seismic ship in 1987-8 by Empire CEO Malcolm Bendall through a
predecessor company, which processed and interpreted this seismic
data and drilled a 1,751m (5,745 feet) stratigraphic well on Bruny
Island in the south of Tasmania in 1995-6. This well successfully
flowed wet gas to octane and 4.8% helium gas.
Registration Statement, Hunt 20 million Shares, and debt to
equity
The Registration Statement will allow Hunt, at their discretion,
to convert their debt to equity at a rate of US$ 7 cents per share,
which the Board reduced from the US$ 15 cents a share price struck
in the original agreement.
CEO Malcolm Bendall said, �Following some recent difficult
times, the Company is now making strong progress with its Rights
Issue, and with the responses from MRT allocating Tenement
References to our applications. This could allow Empire to extend
the exploration program in the near future.�
Empire Energy Corporation is an international oil and gas
exploration company, focusing on developing assets in one of the
world's last virgin basins and to become a leading low-cost finder
of hydrocarbons. The Company is currently operating in Tasmania's
central and northern basins.
Aerial pictures of the well site and the progress of the setup
are available on the company�s web sites www.empireenergy.com and
www.gslm.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements based on
our current expectations about our company and our industry. You
can identify these forward-looking statements when you see us using
the words such as "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "believes,"
"plans" and other similar expressions. These forward-looking
statements involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results
could differ materially from those anticipated in these
forward-looking statements as a result of our ability to complete
required financings and other preconditions to the completion of
the transactions described herein and Empire's ability to
successfully acquire reserves and produce its resources among other
issues. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any
forward-looking statements for any reason, even if new information
becomes available or other events occur in the future. We caution
you not to place undue reliance on those statements. For a more
detailed discussion of risks and other factors related to Empire
Energy Corporation Int'l, please refer to its 10-K and 10 Q reports
filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.