Australis Oil & Gas Limited provided the following corporate update on the company's Tuscaloosa Marine Shale ("TMS") project and current financial position, including a summary of amendments to its secured credit facility ("Facility") with Macquarie Bank Limited (Macquarie). Although in compliance with all financial covenants, Australis undertook a review of the Facility with the intention of reducing debt levels and supporting Facility compliance due to the unprecedented impact of COVID-19 on the financial and oil markets. A pre-emptive restructure of certain terms of the Facility has been agreed with Macquarie enabling the immediate reduction of USD 10 million of outstanding debt, the cancellation of the USD 40 million available but undrawn debt and the waiver of key covenants for the remainder of 2020. The Facility was originally designed for short term utilisation to fund the execution of the initial drilling program constituting 6 to 10 wells in the TMS, with debt capacity to fully fund the program. In light of present market conditions, Australis' strategic priority is maintaining balance sheet headroom to manage and maintain its significant TMS assets until conditions improve and/or partners are introduced. Accordingly, access to additional debt funding for the purpose of drilling wells is not part of its immediate strategy. The key amendments implemented are as follows: immediate principal repayment of USD 10 million from existing cash reserves to bring the debt balance down to USD 23 million, thereby reducing interest payments by 30%; no other amortisation payments required to be made until 31 December 2020 (Facility repayment remains due May 2023); waiver of the key financial covenant relating to reserve valuation until 31 December 2020, providing protection from short term low oil prices; and removal of undrawn debt availability and associated standby fees. Importantly, Australis retains the ability, without penalty, to refinance or repay the entire Facility at any time.

The company also announced that headcount reduction through permanent and temporary layoffs and salary reductions throughout the company's workforce.