Wessex Exploration PLC (Wessex) was formed to explore the Wessex and Weald Basins of southern England at a time when the prolific Sherwood Sandstone reservoir had just been discovered in the giant Wytch Farm oil field and smaller oil and gas discoveries were being made in the Weald Basin. Wessex completed a regional geological study of these basins and concluded that the complexity of the stratigraphy, structure and geological history of the basins required a careful, disciplined and highly technical approach to hydrocarbon exploration and that additional significant hydrocarbon potential remained in place.

Wessex, having the technical resources to accomplish such disciplined exploration applied for and was awarded Petroleum Exploration and Development Licence PEDL 089 in Hampshire, located along the coastline and approximately 10 kilometres from the eastern end of Wytch Farm.

In late 2008, as a result of the United Kingdom 13th Landward Bid Round, Wessex was granted an interest in two new exploration licences, PEDL 238 (southern Dorset) and PEDL 239 (Isle of Wight). 

Since that time, Wessex has also expanded into the international exploration arena and has acquired a portfolio of other assets in Guyane, (formerly French Guiana), the Mozambique Channel, offshore from Madagascar in the French territory of Juan de Nova and both offshore and onshore the Western Sahara of northwest Africa, all of which are expanded upon within the following Review of Operations.

The main guiding principles for Wessex in acquiring exploration acreage are:

The Company now has the basis of an attractive and highly prospective portfolio of moderate to high risk but high reward projects on which the investment of new capital will help to add further value and unlock the potential of these assets.

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•   The presence of a proven petroleum system or at least, in an under-explored area, the presence of all

    the necessary components for same

•   The presence of one or more oil majors in the same general area, exploring for what may result in

    significant new discoveries, thus adding value to Wessex’s acreage

•   The presence of an anomalous or incomplete exploration cycle in the area, resulting from legal, access

    or operational hurdles blocking normal exploration and development of the area of interest

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