18 June 2015

Alba Mineral Resources plc

("ALBA" or the "Company")

Independent Assessment of Horse Hill Licences

Further to the report provided to UK Oil & Gas Investments plc ("UKOG") by Nutech in relation to the Horse Hill-1 ("HH-1") well in the Weald basin, previously announced in April 2015, Alba Mineral Resources plc (LSE AIM: ALBA) has been advised that Nutech has now provided an independent report of the oil initially in place ("OIP") contained within 55 square miles covered by the Horse Hill licences (PEDL137 and PEDL246) near Gatwick Airport, south of London. This evaluation does not include the OIP for the Portland Sandstones, which has already been evaluated and reported on.

The study calculates that the total Jurassic shale plus tight conventional reservoir section of UKOG's licences contain a Best Estimate, or P50, OIP of 9,245 million barrels ("MMBO"). The most significant OIP within the Jurassic section is contained within the shales and tight conventional reservoir limestone sequences of the Kimmeridge, with a calculated Best Estimate, or P50, total Kimmeridge OIP of 5,230 MMBO.

As the Company has stated in relation to previous announcements, the calculated OIP figures should not be construed as contingent resources, prospective resources or reserves.

As detailed in the report on the Horse Hill-1 well, Nutech considers that the analysed Kimmeridge zones are possibly analogous to the known oil productive hybrid reservoir benches of the Bakken of the US Williston Basin, and of the Wolfcamp, Bone Springs, Clearfork, Spraberry, and Dean Formations in the US Permian Basin. Nutech's proprietary database indicates that these US analogues have estimated recovery factors of between 3% and 15% of contacted OIP per well, again as we have reported previously. Further work will be required to determine the likely recovery factor for the Horse Hill licence areas.

The study also identifies possible significant OIP within the Middle Jurassic Oolite limestone section that could be analogous to the Mississippian Limestone Play of Oklahoma. Further work will be carried out to establish the economics of the oil saturations in this section.

Table 1: Summary of OIP for PEDL137 and PEDL246

The above table states the estimated gross OIP.

The Nutech OIP study presents the results of a 3D geological and petrophysical static model used to calculate the range of possible OIP over the 55 square mile PEDL137 and PEDL246 licenses in the UK Weald Basin. The study utilises new 2015 analyses of the HH-1 and Collendean Farm-1 wells and the 8 closest wells to the licenses, together with NUTECH's existing 2014 regional 3D Weald basin framework of 114 wells.

The ranges of calculated geological and petrophysical parameters in each well's NULOOK and NULIST interpretation were used to run a stochastic simulation of OIP over the license areas for key prospective tight Jurassic shale and limestone benches or reservoir units.

Michael Nott, ALBA's CEO, commented:

"Nutech's latest report is a significant step towards understanding the resource potential of the Weald licences, being the first independent semi-regional quantification of OIP over the area that incorporates the findings from the HH-1 well.

The results, utilising over 114 wells in the basin, confirm the likely presence of significant and potentially extensive hydrocarbon volumes within the licence areas and thus provides a further valuable step towards "proof of concept" for the identified Jurassic resource plays.

We now look forward to receiving Nutech's advice on the proposed HH-1 flow test objectives."

ALBA's interest in Horse Hill:

The Horse Hill-1 well is located within onshore exploration Licence PEDL137, on the northern side of the Weald Basin near Gatwick Airport. ALBA owns a 10% direct interest in Horse Hill Developments Ltd ("HHDL"). HHDL is a special purpose company that owns a 65% participating interest and is the operator of licence PEDL137 and the adjacent licence PEDL246 in the UK Weald Basin. The remaining 35% participating interests in the PEDL137 and PEDL246 licences are held by Magellan Petroleum Corporation.

Qualified Person's Statement:

Stephen Sanderson, UKOG's CEO, who has over 30 years of relevant experience in the oil industry, has approved the information contained in this announcement on behalf of Alba.  Mr Sanderson is a Fellow of the Geological Society of London and is an active member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

Enquiries:

About Nutech:

Nutech (www.nutechenergy.com) is a global oil services company specialising in reservoir evaluation and optimisation at all stages of the exploration and production life-cycle.  

Glossary