This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on August 24, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: An independent evaluation of Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd’s 50%-owned Anasuria Cluster off the North Sea in the UK has revealed an estimated 24.4 million barrels of oil reserves (mmbbls) and 17.5 billion standard cubic feet (bscf) of gas reserves.

In a bourse filing, Hibiscus said the evaluation was done by Leap Energy Partners Sdn Bhd, which was appointed by Hibiscus’ wholly-owned subsidiary Anasuria Hibiscus UK Ltd (Ahuk) on May 28 this year.

It said the result was based on July 1, the effective date.

Ahuk holds a 50% interest in the Anasuria Cluster, which is made up of Teal, Teal South and Guillemot fields, and a 19.3% interest in the Cook field.

Hibiscus Petroleum had previously disclosed 2P reserves of oil and gas net to Ahuk as of March 1, 2016 of 20.3 mmbbl and 14.2 bscf respectively, based on a reserves report issued in June 2016 prepared by RPS Energy Consultants Ltd.

Leap Energy’s economic valuation was based on net present value with a discount rate of 10%, a zero inflation rate (no yearly adjustment to capital expenditure and operational expenditure) for the projected cash flow of the Anasuria Cluster and other assumptions.

Leap Energy is an independent consultancy specialising in petroleum reservoir assessment and asset evaluation. The evaluation was supervised by its managing director Laurent Alessio.

Hibiscus rose to a six-month high to close four sen or 4.08% higher at RM1.02 yesterday, with a market capitalisation of RM1.62 billion.