Wessex Exploration PLC has relinquished interest in a licence located in Bournemouth Bay, South of England.

Further to the Company’s AGM statement last month, after detailed discussion with the Department of Energy & Climate Change, the Partners decided to relinquish Promote Licence P1928 (Bournemouth Bay) at the turn of the year rather than waiting for the February 1 drill-or-drop deadline. Although the group has acquired new 2-D seismic data and reprocessed a large volume of existing 2-D and 3-D seismic data, there was insufficient time to prove up the prospects and bring in a drilling partner.

The purpose of the early relinquishment was therefore to enable the group to re-apply for the most prospective parts of the area under the 28th Round of Offshore Licensing, which is expected to open in February 2014. If the application is successful, the group will have a further two-year period to complete its evaluation, confirm drilling plans and thereafter attract a farm in partner.

Elsewhere, the board is considering its options on PEDL238 (Christchurch) and PEDL239 (Isle of Wight), each of which expires on 1 July 2014. One option may be early relinquishment to enable the areas to be included in the 14th Onshore Licensing Round, which is expected to take place in the second half of 2014.

In accordance with the AIM Rules – Guidance for Mining and Oil & Gas Companies, the information contained in this announcement has been reviewed and signed off by the Chairman of Wessex, Dr Malcolm Butler PhD, BSc, CGeol, FGS who has over 40 years’ experience as a petroleum geologist. He has compiled, read and approved the technical disclosure in this regulatory announcement. The technical disclosure in this announcement complies with the SPE/WPC standard.

Malcolm Butler, Chairman of Wessex said: “Using the knowledge and database gained from activities on our existing assets to build future value for shareholders is an important part of our strategy. These Southern England licence areas still have significant potential and we are investigating ways of gaining more time to evaluate them at little additional cost.”