## OPERATIONS REVIEW 

WITH HOWARD OBEE AND PETER FLEMING 

OUR TECHNICAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE DARWIN DISCOVERY IS BEING ENHANCED ALL THE TIME. WE CONTINUE TO BELIEVE IT IS A SIGNIFICANT, ROBUSTLY DEFINED GAS CONDENSATE ACCUMULATION. 

The Company has concentrated on two main areas of activity during the past year. Firstly, the farm-out of our acreage which is needed to help fund the next phase of drilling and secondly, the sub-surface technical evaluation which was aimed at improving our resource estimates of Darwin, identifying the best locations for appraisal wells and evaluating near-field prospects. 

The farm-out process has been a frustrating one, not helped by the dramatic decrease in oil price and the continued poor exploration success track record of the industry. Despite these negative factors we remain confident in the quality of our discovery and surrounding acreage and we are focused on securing a suitable partner. 

## DARWIN RESOURCE ESTIMATE 

We have made good progress in the technical evaluation. During 2014 we received the final processed data from our 2013 seismic acquisition programme. This was merged with the reprocessed data from our 2008 survey, giving us approximately 2500 sq km of high quality 3D PSDM data. In mid-year we announced the results from our Phase 2 engineering study. This increased the resource estimate of Darwin to 263 million barrels. Subsequent technical work has enhanced our understanding of the reservoir distribution and has allowed 

a further revision of numbers. Our current best estimate P50 unrisked recoverable resource is 360 million barrels of condensate. 

## 3D SEISMIC INTERPRETATION 

The mapping of the new seismic data not only confirmed our previous structural interpretation, but also provided new stratigraphic insights. The main insight was that the Early Cretaceous shallow marine prospectivity was likely to be based on a structural/stratigraphic trapping mechanism rather than purely structural. Numerous amplitude anomalies have been mapped in the play fairway. Whilst recognising that our 10,000 sq km acreage contains several exciting other plays such as deep-water channels and fans and large scale folds, it was decided to focus in the short term on the Early Cretaceous play fairway close to the discovery as the anomalies appeared so interesting. 

## SEISMIC INVERSION 

The next phase of the evaluation centred around trying to understand the areas with mapped amplitude anomalies in a little more detail. To this end we initiated a seismic inversion project. With normal seismic reflection data the interpretation is based on mapping the interface between different rock units. A map is generated for the top of the reservoir, 

but it tells us little of the actual reservoir interval itself. However, the inverted seismic data describes the internal rock properties of the reservoir such as lithology type, porosity or fluid type, rather than just the boundaries. The processed data incorporates the well log data into a quantitative rock- property description of the reservoir. 

The results from this out-sourced study are just being made available. Early signs are that an additional potential hydrocarbon bearing sand interval has been identified over part of both Darwin East and West. The interval is not well developed at the Darwin East well location where only thin hydrocarbon sands were encountered. The new data has revealed that this unit expands to the east and south of the well location. Also, to the north of Darwin our confidence has been enhanced that some of the mapped structural/ stratigraphic traps could contain hydrocarbons. This work is ongoing, and will be reported on once it has been fully integrated into our existing interpretations. Hopefully we are laying the foundations of future success. 

