Altona Energy PLC Petroleum Exploration Licence Application Update (8444J)

TIDMANR

RNS Number : 8444J

Altona Energy PLC

03 July 2017

Altona Energy Plc

("Altona" or "the Company")

PEL Application Update

Further to the notification of 16 May 2017, the Company announces that the Arckaringa Coal Chemical Joint Venture Company Pty Ltd (the "JV Company") has been in discussions with Tri-Star Petroleum Company Inc. ("Tri-Star") the new owner of Petroleum Exploration Licence ("PEL") Application 604 which overlaps Altona's three exploration licences relating to the Arckaringa project.

After several weeks of negotiations Tri-Star has informed the JV Company that it will not relinquish PEL Application 604 and has also indicated it will not consider a commercial deal whereby the JV Company would be granted access to certain areas covered by the licence application to commence test work for its proposed underground coal gasification project.

Following a request from the JV Company, the South Australian ("SA") Government has now intervened in the matter. The SA Government has always been supportive of the JV Company's plans to develop the Arkaringa coal deposits and the Board of Altona anticipates that their intervention will encourage Tri-Star to cooperate with the JV Company. However there can be no assurances that a successful outcome will be achieved for the JV Company and Altona.

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For further information, please visit www.altonaenergy.com or contact:

 
Altona Energy plc                      +44 (0)7555 
 Qinfu Zhang, Executive Chairman           679 245 
Leander (Financial PR)             [phone] 
 Christian Taylor- Wilkinson                   157 
Northland Capital Partners Ltd 
 (Nomad and Broker) 
 Matthew Johnson / Gerry Beaney 
 (Corporate Finance)                [phone] 
 John Howes (Corporate Broking)               6625 
 

About Altona

Altona is listed on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market. Its principal focus is on the evaluation and development of the Company's flagship Arckaringa Project to exploit the significant coal resources contained in three exploration licences covering 2,500 sq. kms in the northern portion of the Permian Arckaringa Basin in South Australia. The Project is designed to produce syngas products for the Australian market and export from a resource exceeding 7.8 billion tonnes of coal (1.3 billion tonnes JORC compliant).

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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July 03, 2017 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT)