Wellington, New Zealand--(Newsfile Corp. - February 15, 2024) - New Zealand Energy Corp. (TSXV: NZ) ("NZEC" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an operational update.

The Company is continuing to prioritize drilling the Tariki-5 Development well in mid-2024. In addition, the Company is focused on restoring production in the existing Copper Moki and Waihapa oil fields, also in the first half of 2024. Details of the planned operations are;

Tariki-5 New Development Well

• Targets development in an undrained up-dip compartment of the Tariki field of the previously announced 6.88PJ (5.50 Bcf) gas of proved plus probable reserve (2P) gas reserves. (See the Company's news release dated October 31, 2022)

• The drilling & development team is now in place and in a position to allow the Company to complete all the required well works.

• Well planning is underway, and contracting a suitable rig, services, and the acquisition of long lead equipment is in progress.

• The Tariki-A site has resource consent for the drilling operations with other outstanding regulatory consents anticipated to be in place to allow drilling to commence late in the first half of 2024 or early in the second half of 2024.

Copper Moki 1 & 2 Production Reinstatement

• The Company plans on reinstating production from both Copper Moki 1 & 2, and an intervention program will be required to remediate these wells.

• The planning phase of this remediation work has commenced and the works are expected to be executed in Q2 2024.

Waihapa-H1

• The Company also plans to re-enter and clean out the wellbore on Waihapa-H1, a well that was drilled in 2006 and produced significant volumes of oil for a short period of time before experiencing a collapse of a limited section of the wellbore.

• Plans include re-entry of the well and a cleaning out of short section of the wellbore to re-establish production.

• This activity is currently in the planning phase, and execution is expected in Q2 2024, with production potentially back on line also in late Q2 2024.

As announced on October 31, 2022, NZEC received an independent reserves evaluation from RPS Energy Canada Ltd. in respect of the Tariki field located in petroleum mining licence (PML 38138) held as to 50% by NZEC wholly owned subsidiary, NZEC Tariki Limited. For further information regarding the Tariki field and the reserve report, please refer to the Company's news release dated October 31, 2022. To assist in the financing of the Tariki-5 well, NZEC is advancing discussions with gas purchasers interested in acquiring Tariki gas in the ground and, after production, converting the Tariki field into a gas-storage project. Current plans are expected to have the well spudding in July 2024.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

"James Willis"

Chairman

New Zealand Energy Corp.

New Zealand Energy Contacts
Email: info@newzealandenergy.com
Website: www.newzealandenergy.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as such term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Information: This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward-looking information. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking information regarding: the business of the Company, including future plans and objectives. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. This forward-looking information reflects NZEC's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to NZEC and on assumptions NZEC believes are reasonable. These assumptions include, but are not limited to: NZEC's current and initial understanding and analysis of its projects and the development required for such projects; the costs of NZEC's projects; NZEC's general and administrative costs remaining constant; and the market acceptance of NZEC's business strategy. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of NZEC to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; industry condition; volatility of commodity prices; imprecision of reserve estimates; environmental risks; operational risks in exploration and development; general capital market conditions and market prices for securities; delay or failure to receive board or regulatory approvals; the actual results of future operations; competition; changes in legislation, including environmental legislation, ‎affecting NZEC; the timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; and lack of qualified, skilled labour or loss of key individuals. A description of additional risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information can be found in NZEC's disclosure documents on the SEDAR+ website at www.sedarplus.ca. Although NZEC has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the expectations of NZEC as of the date of this news release and, accordingly, is subject to change after such date. However, NZEC expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/198136