• Empire subsidiary Imperial Oil & Gas Pty Limited has executed three grant agreements with the Australian Government under the Beetaloo Cooperative Drilling Program
• The grants will facilitate an acceleration of work program activities consistent with Empire’s rapid commercialisation strategy
• Work program approval for the next phases of work has been received from the NT Government and operations are restarting

Empire Energy today provides an update regarding grants awarded under the Australian Government’s Beetaloo Cooperative Drilling Program and its operations in the Northern Territory.

Beetaloo Drilling Grant Agreements Executed

Empire’s wholly owned subsidiary, Imperial Oil & Gas, has entered into grant agreements with the Australian Government which will offset 25% of the cost of seismic acquisition and the drilling, fracture stimulation and flow testing of three horizontal appraisal wells in its 100% owned EP187 tenement, located in the Beetaloo Sub-basin, Northern Territory.

Beetaloo Work Program Update

Empire has received work program approval from the Northern Territory Government for the portions of its EP187 Environment Management Plan (“EMP”) which relate to civil construction (access tracks, well pads and water bor activities will commence in the coming days.

Approval for the drilling and fracture stimulation components of the EMP are expected in the coming weeks.

Empire is finalising preparations to restart flow testing operations at the Carpentaria-1 vertical well in late September. The well has been
shut in temporarily due to COVID related restrictions in the Northern Territory. The results of the flow testing program will generate important data for Empire’s technical team as it decides which of the four productive Velkerri shale zones to land the first horizontal appraisal well into.