Global Petroleum Limited has signed a Petroleum Agreement to acquire Block 2011A offshore Namibia. Global will hold an 85% interest in the new block as operator. State oil company, Namcor, and a local private company, Aloe, will have carried interests of 10% and 5% respectively.

Block 2011A is located in the northern Walvis basin, immediately to the east of the Company's current licence, PEL0029, which comprises Blocks 1910B and 2010A. The combination of the two licences gives Global an aggregate of 11,608 square kilometres offshore northern Namibia and makes it one of the largest net acreage holders in the region. Global believes that Block 2011A contains the same plays as those detailed in the Competent Person's Report for PEL0029, which was published in January 2018, and is available on the Company's website.

The Repsol operated Welwitschia-1A well, which was drilled in the western part of Block 2011A in 2014, primarily targeted Upper Cretaceous sands on the crest of a large structure but did not encounter a reservoir. However, Global believes that there is significant prospectivity - similar to that in PEL0029 - in the deeper Albian Carbonates, which Welwitschia-1A did not reach.

The Company also believes that there is additional prospectivity in shallower Upper Cretaceous/Tertiary reservoirs on the eastern flank of the Welwitschia structure. These reservoirs have been proven by wells to the north-east and south-east of Block 2011A, and the Cretaceous is a target in both of the wells to be drilled in Q3/Q4 2018 by Tullow and Chariot respectively (see below).

Drilling on Tullow's Cormorant prospect in Block 2012B recently commenced. The Cormorant well is approximately 40 kilometres from Block 2011A and the Tullow block is contiguous with the south-east corner of Block 2011A (Figure 1). Cormorant is ranked by Wood Mackenzie as one of the "15 most anticipated conventional wells in 2018''. Aside from the wider prospectivity of its new acreage, the Company expects that the play to be tested by the Cormorant well extends into Block 2011A, and so positive results from Cormorant should provide Global with significant read across. Further south, Chariot's Prospect S well is due to spud later in the year where a successful outcome should further enhance the oil and gas industry's focus on offshore Namibia.

Under the Block 2011A work programme, in the first two years of the Initial Exploration Period, Global will carry out various studies and will reprocess all existing seismic in the licence area, which includes a 3D seismic data survey shot in the western part. The studies and reprocessing will enable the reservoirs in the Welwitschia structure and elsewhere in the acreage to be mapped with more confidence, and the leads to be identified more accurately.

At the end of two years, Global has the option either to shoot a new 2,000 square kilometre 3D seismic data survey in the eastern part of Block 2011A, or alternatively to relinquish the licence.

Peter Hill, Global Petroleum's CEO, commented:
"It is clear that oil and gas industry interest in offshore Namibia has accelerated greatly in recent months and we are therefore extremely pleased to have succeeded in what has been a long-term aim for the Company - acquiring Block 2011A adjacent to our existing acreage.

"Block 2011A is situated in an area of offshore Namibia which is considered by Global and the industry to be highly prospective, as evidenced by recent farm-ins involving major NOCs and IOCs, and especially by the Cormorant well currently drilling close by. Our immediate obligations can be completed at relatively low cost to us, and the potential advantages of read across from drilling activity by other industry participants are clear."