US Hedging transaction and production update
Norse Energy Corp. ASA (“NEC” ticker code OSE – NEC, Oslo, Norway, U.S OTC symbol “NSEEF”) has in a hedging transaction sold forward part of its natural gas production in the US. The amounts sold forward are;
• 570,000 Mcf for 2009 at an average sales price of 5.72 USD/MMBtu
• 380,000 Mcf for 2010 at an average sales price of 5.72 USD/MMBtu
• 800,000 Mcf for 2011 at an average sales price of 5.72 USD/MMBtu
• 180,000 Mcf for 2012 at an average sales price of 5.72 USD/MMBtu
This represents a total volume of 1.93 Bcf for the 3 year period from April 2009 through March 2012.
This hedging transaction comes in addition to the hedging contract of 570,000 Mcf for the remainder of 2009 (April – December) at an average sales price of 8.12 USD/MMBtu and 720,000 Mcf for 2010 at an average sales price of 8.03 USD/MMBtu.
Total amounts sold forward thus are;
• 1.14 Bcf (average of 4,145 Mcf/day) for 2009 at an average sales price of 6.92 USD/MMBtu
• 1.10 Bcf (average of 3,014 Mcf/day) for 2010 at an average sales price of 7.23 USD/MMBtu
• 0.80 Bcf (average of 2,192 Mcf/day) for 2011 at an average sales price of 5.72 USD/MMBtu
• 0.18 Bcf (average of 1,978 Mcf/day) for 2012 at an average sales price of 5.72 USD/MMBtu
Total hedges in place for the remainder of 2009 therefore represent ~45% of budgeted volume. Additional hedging will be considered as market conditions improve.
US Production update
In late December 2008, Norse Energy announced that its US daily production level had reached a new all-time high, producing in excess of 6,000 Mcf/day (1,069 boe/day). The company then set a target of doubling that daily production figure by the close of calendar 2008. Following the recent installation of a new compressor unit on our pipeline system in Central New York State, Norse Energy is pleased to advise that its US daily production has now exceeded 10,000 Mcf/day (1,781 boe/day).
”The addition of the new pipeline compressor is allowing us to demonstrate the impressive production potential of our recent discoveries,” comments Norse Energy CEO, Oivind Risberg. He further notes that we appear to be well on our way toward meeting our targeted US production goal of 12,000 Mcf/day (2,137 boe/day) by year's end.
For further information please contact:
Anders Kapstad, CFO
Cell: +47 918 17 442
E-mail: akapstad@norseenergy.com
S. Dennis Holbrook, U.S. Investor Relations
Tel.: + 1 (716) 568-2048
Email: dholbrook@norseenergy.com