US Oil and Gas plc

U.S. Oil has collected 18 complimentary data sets from its acreage, including data from 3-D Passive Seismic (IPDS) surveying– the most advanced oil exploration technology of its kind.  On the basis of its surveys, U.S. Oil has identified its first drilling targets and has been awarded a Permit to Drill by the US authorities.

The Company's’s aim is to build on its current exploration base and bring new opportunities to the pre-production stage as well as to identify strategic partners to jointly develop and/or sell the target assets.  U.S. Oil & Gas continually researches the potential for additional lease acreage to augment its current portfolio.

Short-term Objectives

• Complete preparations for drilling well Eblana 1 in Hot Creek Valley, Nevada;
• Achieve lifting of PLUS market suspension as soon as possible.

Medium-term Objectives

To maximise shareholder value by:

• Proving any discovery in terms of volume, flow rates and quality;
• Moving any discovery up the value chain to 'Proved Reserves'; 
• Drilling further wells;
• Continuing to collect high quality data to inform future development.

Why Nevada?

Thrust belts and associated foreland basins provide a quarter of the earth's known oil reserves.  These are found where the western North American Cordillera coincides with organic-rich hydrocarbon source rocks, including the Mississippian Antler foreland basin of western Utah and central  Nevada.

As with thrust belts worldwide, some oil is trapped in giant thrust structures. Typically, oil seeps occur above the giant structures — except in Nevada where a blanket of Oligocene volcanic rocks and detritus buried and sealed the oil seeps.

Some of these concealed Nevada oil seeps, including the most prolific North American onshore flowing oil well found in ten years, are unconformity-related, commercial grade oil accumulations.

The most extensive proprietary study of source rock in the Great Basin to date reveals that the Mississippian Antler foreland basin is made up of  transgressive and regressive lacustrine sequences and Stigmaria root zones with rootlets penetrating bedding planes.  Palynomorph biostratigraphy from oil wells confirms that the regressive sequences are mostly organic-rich lacustrine shales or lakebeds.

Conventional 2D and 3D seismology has not been able to identify oil bearing forms; however, Antler Forland basin contains enough organics to generate  huge quantities of oil.

Geologists believe there are at least 30 geologic structures each containing in excess of 1 billion barrels of oil.

Progress do date:

A February 2012 Competent Person's Report by Forrest Garb & Associates estimates Gross Prospective Resources of 189 MMSTB OOIP (P50) and 67 MMSTB recoverable oil. 

Drilling

U.S. Oil has identified all of its Eblana Phase 1 prospect area drilling targets.   The company  has been awarded a Permit to Drill by the US Authorities in Nevada in preparation for the drilling of its first target well.  Major Oil International LLC, U.S. Oil's wholly owned subsidiary, has signed a contract with Nabors Industries Inc. to drill the Eblana #1 exploration well, plus at least one further well.  Earth mobilisation and site construction at the Eblana #1 location in readiness for spudding began on April 3rd, 2012.  Equipment mobilisation is underway.

Spudding of exploration well Eblana #1 is due to take place on May 5th 2012. The targeted drilling depth is approximately 8,000 feet.

Expanded Lease Area

On 24 February and 6th March, 2012, the Company announced it had acquired additional, continguous, lease acreage in Hot Creek Valley.  Through its wholly owned subsidiary, Major Oil International LLC, the Company's total acreage position in Hot Creek Valley is now 22,221 acres (approx. 90 sq. km.).

Geochemical surveys

Final analysis of the latest geochemical results for US Oil's pre-December 2011 lease area confirms five precisely defined hydrocarbon reservoirs, larger than previously reported, and some subsuming more than one previously reported anomaly.   Two of the anomalies are analogous to trends found in the adjacent oil-producing Railroad Valley.  Final anomaly sizes, extracted from the latest data, yield a current estimated size of up to 400 acres per anomaly, indicating that, on average, 30% of the lease area shows signs of hydrocarbon alteration.

Passive Seismic (IPDS) survey

A 3-D Infrasonic Passive Differential Spectroscopy (IPDS) survey was recently completed over the whole of the pre-December 2011 lease area. A report prepared by Geodynamics Research confirms a large hydrocarbon anomaly consistent with previously reported 2-D IPDS, geochemical survey results and other data sets. The anomaly covers more than 10 sq.km and shows consistently high Reservoir Hydrocarbon Indicator (RHI) readings. The hydrocarbon pool sits updip and is wholly contained within the lease area, while the source kitchen is underneath or just down-dip nearby. US Oil has identified up to ten drilling targets over the studied lease area.

Brian McDonnell - Chief Executive Officer

Brian graduated from Dublin City University with a business studies degree and worked in manufacturing for a number of years before setting up and successfully running his own training company.   Brian has extensive experience of bringing developing large and complex projects to fruition.  He has been CEO of U.S. Oil & Gas since it was founded in 2009.

Andrew Harwood - Finance 

An Investment Fund Manager and Financial Planner in the U.K. since 1989, Mr. Harwood brings his extensive experience in corporate investment in the oil and gas sector to the company.  Mr. Harwood is based in the U.K. and is currently Fund Manager of an OEIC (MFM CFS Balanced Opportunities Fund) and Managing Director of CFS Independent Ltd. Mr. Harwood has been a lecturer for the British Council in its pre-retirement seminar for senior employees and has also provided financial and investment advice to listeners on LBCtalkback radio.  He was also a regular speaker to visitors of the annual Money Show at Olympia.

Peter Whelan - Audit/Remuneration/Contracts

Working in law enforcement, compliance and management in Ireland since 1982, Mr. Whelan has held various roles in the enforcement of, criminal, public health, environmental and sea fisheries law. Mr. Whelan has had responsibility for developing, managing, reviewing and renegotiation of service contracts across the public service. 

Karim Akrawi - Exploration Director

Karim Akrawi is currently General Director for Geodynamics Worldwide, the company responsible for developing and implementing the Infrasonic Passive Differential Spectroscopy (IPDS or Passive Seismic) survey technology. He has presented and published numerous papers and reports on the application of IPDS and has made a significant contribution to the development of the technology as used today in oil exploration around the world.

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