As previously announced, DNO is considering undertaking a senior notes offer of USD 150-200 million. For this offering, DNO has been assigned credit ratings by the international rating agencies Standard & Poor's and Moody`s of B- and Caa2, respectively. Standard & Poor's and Moody`s have issued their own press releases about the ratings.
A decision undertaking a senior notes offering will inter alia depend on the terms achieved.
During preparation of the above ratings, DNO had independent engineers make reserves estimates according to "SEC" standards. According to these estimates, the company's proven reserves at 30 June 2003 were 49.5 million barrels while the company's proven developed reserves were 21.6 million barrels.
DNO expects that the company`s proven reserves will increase when the PL 203 development plan receives formal approval by the Norwegian Authorities. Similarly, DNO expects that the company`s proven developed reserves will increase when Broom comes on stream during the summer of 2004.
As previously announced to the market during the presentation of the 2nd quarter interim results 2003, DNO estimates the proven + probable reserves of approx. 143 million barrels as of 30 June 2003.This is an increase of approx. 17 million barrels compared to the 31 December 2002 estimate.
DNO will be preparing an updated reserves report at 31 December 2003 in connection the work on its annual report for 2003.