10 November 2021

Bowleven plc ('Bowleven' or 'the Company')

Full Year Results

Bowleven, the Africa focused oil and gas exploration group traded on AIM, today announces its audited results for the year ended 30 June 2021. Terms not otherwise defined have the meanings given to them in the Glossary at the foot of this announcement.

HIGHLIGHTS

Operational

Etinde, offshore Cameroon

  • The Front End Engineering Design (FEED) project completed in December 2020 with follow-up evaluation completed during Q1 2021.
  • FEED highlighted that an IM field only development based on domestic gas sales only, with reinjection and recycling of surplus gas would not deliver sufficient return on investment for the JV partners under current market conditions. The Board of Bowleven believes that the addition of IE reserves and higher domestic and/or export gas production is critical for the Limbe facility based development option.
  • Processing Etinde wet gas production at the Marathon Oil-operated Bioko Island facilities in Equatorial Guinea has become a potential alternative and Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH) has given the JV partners approval to investigate this option.
  • Work is progressing on re-evaluation of the IE reservoirs with the aim of adding this option to the Field Development Plan.
  • The economic investment case for Etinde remains strong, with the Company's interest in the
    Etinde project continuing to hold an estimated value of $150 million, well above the Group's current market capitalisation.

Financial

  • The loss for the financial year was $2 million.
  • Bowleven closed the year with $4.1 million of cash and a financial investment of $2.5 million giving a total value of funds of $6.6 million. Cash balances at 30 October 2021 were $3.0 million.

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  • There are commercial and regulatory issues which have yet to be resolved in conjunction with the uncertainty regarding the optimum development concept. Resolving these issues to permit FID to be reached in 2022 will be a challenge for the JV partners and any delays in reaching final resolutions will create a high financial risk for Bowleven.
  • The timing of resolving these issues impacts the Directors considerations relating to their assessment of the going concern status of the group. It was therefore considered appropriate that a number of different scenarios were considered by the Directors. In addition to these scenarios, a number of further sensitivities were modelled which considered the impact of increases in opex and capex and changes in FID timing. Each of the scenarios and sensitivities demonstrated positive cash balances twelve months from the date of approval of the financial statements and the Directors are therefore satisfied that the Group has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for 12 months from the date of the approval of the financial statements. However, timing of progress towards FID is not within the control of the Group. Should these commercial and regulatory issues not be resolved as anticipated, it is likely that Bowleven would be required to raise additional short-term funding to bridge expenditure to FID and the receipt of $25 million due from the JV partners at that milestone.

Corporate

  • The Etinde JV partners are in continued discussion with SNH and various other commercial parties in respect of the domestic sale of gas, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and condensate.
  • The Group has entered initial discussions with Marathon Oil regarding using the Bioko Island facilities subject to approval from SNH.
  • Appointment of Jack Arnoff as NED and Chairman.

Outlook

The Company's key objective is to deliver on a revised strategy in FY2022 which includes:

  • Working with JV partners on Commercial and Finance matters in respect of the Etinde development options with the aim of reaching an Etinde project FID in 2022.
  • The JV partners propose to renew the Etinde Exclusive Exploitation Agreement (EEEA) licence as part of the regulatory process associated with FID in 2022. The risk of the Etinde licence potentially being removed following its expiry in January 2021is considered low at the current time.
  • Maintaining disciplined capital management to secure progress towards FID whilst maintaining financial resources, the Company thereafter exploring funding options regarding development capital.

Eli Chahin, Chief Executive Officer of Bowleven plc, said:

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"We continue to focus on maximising the economic return to our shareholders. Throughout the course of 2021, we have seen global gas prices return to high levels and trend towards higher long term prices. With the expected timing of our first gas condensate production, we uphold a strong economic case for our asset with capital returns anticipated by the Board to be favourable.

Our focus for 2022 is to reach an agreement within the JV partnership and our wider stakeholders on the optimum development concept for Etinde and reach FID during the year. The Board and the executive team are continually discussing ways to mitigate project and financing risk and will continue to seek ways to deliver significant long-term value to investors whilst securing the sustainability of the Company."

ENQUIRIES

For further information, please contact:

Bowleven plc

Eli Chahin, Chief Executive

00 44 20 3327 0150

Capital Markets Communications Ltd (Camarco)

Owen Roberts

00 44 20 3757 4980

Charlotte Hollinshead

Shore Capital Ltd (NOMAD and Broker)

Robert Finlay

00 44 20 7601 6100

Daniel Bush

This announcement may include statements that are, or may be deemed to be "forward- looking statements". These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the terms "believes", "estimates", "anticipates", "projects", "expects", "intends", "may", "will", "seeks" or "should" or, in each case, their negative or other variations or comparable terminology, or by discussions of strategy, plans, objectives, goals, future events or intentions. These forward-looking statements include all matters that are not historical facts. They include statements regarding the Company's intentions, beliefs or current expectations concerning, amongst other things, the results of operations, financial conditions, liquidity, prospects, growth and strategies of the Company and its direct and indirect subsidiaries (the "Group") and the industry in which the Group operates. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. The Group's actual results of operations, financial conditions and liquidity, and the development of the industry in which the Group operates, may differ materially from those suggested by the forward-looking statements contained in the announcement. In addition, even if the Group's results of operations, financial conditions and liquidity, and the development of the industry in which the Group operates, are consistent with the forward-looking statements contained in the announcement, those results or developments may not be indicative of results or developments in subsequent periods. In light of those risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the events described in the forward-looking statements in the announcement may not occur. Other than in accordance with the Company's obligations under the AIM Rules for

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Companies and the Market Abuse Regulations, the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. All written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or to persons acting on the Company's behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements referred to above and contained elsewhere in the announcement.

Notes to Editors:

Bowleven plc is an African focused oil and gas group, based in London and traded on AIM. It is dedicated to realising material shareholder value from its asset in Cameroon, whilst maintaining capital discipline and employing a rigorously selective approach to other value-enhancing opportunities.

Bowleven holds a strategic equity interest in the offshore, shallow water Etinde permit (operated by NewAge) in Cameroon.

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CEO & CHAIRMAN STATEMENT

A STRATEGIC FOCUS ON ETINDE FID

Dear Shareholders,

Last year, we considered 2020 to have been a milestone year, both for society and for our industry. Following the onset of COVID-19 we saw a growing intensity around the need for the global economy to increasingly focus on the Green Transition to a lower carbon future. In many ways, 2021 has surpassed 2020, as the global economy has returned to something more akin to the 2018 and 2019 environment. Natural gas prices have reached extraordinary highs in Southeast Asia during the summer and early autumn, with Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) loads selling at more than $17 per MMBtu. Indeed, global natural gas prices, outside the USA domestic market, have also seen similar large price increases this year. Whilst there are significant current year factors at play, there appears to be a trend towards higher price developments. Oil prices have also recovered and recently we have seen Brent reaching highs of $80 or more per barrel.

At the petroleum industry level, the short-term environment remains as uncertain and turbulent as in 2020, but with increased volatility as the global market returns to a new market equilibrium. Both demand and supply are rapidly returning to 2019 levels, even though the impact of new variants of the COVID-19 virus has maintained a negative economic and social impact.

In our view, many different difficult-to-judge demand and supply catalysts remain poised to contribute to continued market volatility in the near term. In the medium term, we expect there to be a complex interaction between the effect of several years' cumulative delays in new project investment decisions, especially to higher-cost projects, and the return to previous 'business as usual' demand. This, in combination with further global economic growth, expected short-term inflation and the increasing impact of decarbonisation measures, will impact global demand in uncertain ways.

There is no current consensus on how this dynamic equilibrium will evolve, although we remain confident that shareholders' patience will be rewarded. It appears likely that petroleum prices will continue to rise in the medium term and we continue to see a strong investment case for developing the Etinde asset at the current time.

At an operational level, the COVID-19 protective remote working practices commenced in 2020 have continued to be applied. Whilst these have been very successful at protecting the welfare of our employees, as we noted in our interim results, travel bans have seen a growing impact on commercial negotiations. The absence of face-to-face negotiations was always going to give rise to delays of the sort we have seen in 2021.

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BowLeven plc published this content on 10 November 2021 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 10 November 2021 07:14:02 UTC.