NEW YORK, Nov. 01, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Petrogress, Inc. (OTCMkts:PGAS) announced today that its acquired 90% of the shares of Petrogres Africa Co., Ltd. (“PAF”) through Petrogress Int’l, LLC, its wholly owned subsidiary from Chairman Christos P. Traios. The remaining 10% is privately held by Ghanaian investors.
Mr. Traios purchased the 90% interest in early 2017, paying 3.936mm Ghanaian Cedis into PAF; PIL paid Mr. Traios $1.00 for his interest in PAF. Petrogress, Inc. will consolidate PAF’s financial reporting through PIL, booking the $900,000 payment as additional paid-in-capital.
PAF holds a current Ghanaian business permit, and is authorized to conduct local sales of oil products and shipping business from the Port of Tema in Greater Accra. Port facilities in Tema will provide a service and operations hub for the Company’s Petrogres tankers currently involved in Nigerian oil trading and transport. The Port of Tema also serves as a secondary hub for repair, supply and transport ship operators servicing Ghana’s Tano Basin offshore oil fields in the Gulf of Guinea.
PAF expects to bid for operating contracts on the currently shut-in APG-1 production platform located in the Saltpond Oil Field in shallow waters approximately 8 miles offshore and 65 miles west of Accra. The project is owned by the Ghana National Oil Company, and it is expected to let the operating contract by the end of 2017. Preliminary bid terms will require the successful applicant to make repairs on the production platform and work over six existing wells to boost production from current levels of 300-500 BPD, but will also grant access for E&P development on up to 10 additional offshore blocks. Current reserve estimates for Saltpond range down to 4.2mm barrels of oil and 20b cubic feet of gas recoverable. Unproven reserves on the studied portions of the additional blocks, however, are as high as 44b barrels of oil.
Chairman Christos P. Traios stated, “This is a very interesting speculation for PAF. APG-1 is the old Mr. Louie drilling platform, which has drilled all over the world, including the first North Sea wells. But it’s a solid production platform in shallow water and repairs look to be minimal. It also covers an area that would allow for a relatively inexpensive rig-less workover of the existing wells; these are modestly profitable now – Ghana Petroleum expects only a 15% royalty – and we can make money with the proven oil and gas reserves. But it’s simply too small of a project for a larger company. The big payoff is exclusive operator access to the undeveloped blocks, and the prospect of partnering with a much larger company for development is a tremendous opportunity. We expect our Ghanaian partners in PAF will be instrumental in preparing a strong bid for the operating contract.”
About Petrogress, Inc.
Petrogress, Inc. owns and operates a fleet of tankers from its base in the historic Port of Piraeus through a series of Marshall Islands subsidiaries. Its principal and CEO, Christos P. Traios, has over 30 years of experience in operating and managing shipping operations from Greece. Currently, the Company’s ships trade off the coast of West Africa, transporting crude oil, distillates and refined products. It is actively seeking expansion opportunities, including in operating and developing natural gas production and transmission facilities along with LNG processing in the U.S., and transport and sales of LNG in Europe.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains information that constitutes forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, trends, analysis, and other information contained in this press release including words such as "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "intend," and other similar expressions of opinion, constitute forward-looking statements. Any such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results described within the forward-looking statements. Risk factors that could contribute to such differences include those matters more fully disclosed in the Company's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking information provided herein represents the Company's estimates as of the date of the press release, and subsequent events and developments may cause the Company's estimates to change. The Company specifically disclaims any obligation to update the forward-looking information in the future. Therefore, this forward-looking information should not be relied upon as representing the Company's estimates of its future financial performance as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.
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