Ecoark Announces Successful Drilling of Louisiana Oil Well

SAN ANTONIO, March 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ecoark Holdings, Inc. (“Ecoark”) (NASDAQ: ZEST), today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Banner Midstream Corp. (“Banner”) has successfully completed the drilling of an oil project on its 9,615 acre oil and gas mineral lease (“OGML”) in the Blackhawk oil field in Concordia Parish, Louisiana on March 4, 2022. Banner’s wholly-owned subsidiary, White River Operating LLC (“White River”) led the drilling effort in close partnership with a local energy services provider. The completed well was logged March 5, 2022 and had significant shows in the 3 different zones in the Frio sand formation. White River expects to perforate, complete, and bring the oil well to production in the coming weeks.

“We are pleased to announce this successful oil project,” stated Randy May, Chairman and CEO of Ecoark. “We began planning and permitting this project during a period of significant lower oil prices and are proud to be in a position to turn on production at a critical time for the country’s domestic energy supply.”

“We are proud of the value we continue to generate for Ecoark stakeholders via strategic investments in oil assets under our Banner subsidiary,” said Brad Hoagland, Chief Financial Officer of Ecoark. “The capital we deployed during a dramatically different commodity price environment in 2020 evidences our ability to invest for the long-term, including the acquisition of energy assets out of bankruptcy from Sanchez Energy Corporation at a very opportune time,” stated Brad Hoagland, Chief Financial Officer. For more information on Ecoark’s previously announced acquisition of assets from Sanchez Energy, please see the company’s announcements from June 11, 2020 and June 24, 2020.

“We have several new drilling projects as well as re-entry projects to access oil behind pipe that we plan to execute in the coming months,” added Mr. May. “These projects are considered lower risk and higher reward, so we can mitigate dry hole risk across a series of multiple projects. We look forward to keeping our investors informed on future developments across our energy subsidiaries.”

About Ecoark Holdings, Inc.

Founded in 2011, Ecoark is a diversified holding company. The company has three wholly-owned principal subsidiaries: Zest Labs, Inc. (“Zest Labs”), Banner Midstream Corp (“Banner Midstream”) and Agora Digital Holdings Inc. (“Agora”), the parent of Trend Holdings, LLC (“Trend”). Zest Labs, offers the Zest Fresh™ solution, a breakthrough approach to quality management of fresh food, is specifically designed to help substantially reduce the $161 billion amount of food loss the U.S. experiences each year. Banner Midstream is engaged in oil and gas exploration, production, and drilling operations on over 30,000 cumulative acres of active mineral leases in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Banner Midstream also provides transportation and logistics services and procures and finances equipment to oilfield transportation services contractors. Agora was formed to acquire Trend and its new cryptocurrency mining subsidiary, Bitstream Mining LLC. In addition to leading this new business opportunity, Trend invests in a select number of early-stage startups each year as part of the fund’s venture capital strategy; it is an open-minded investor with a founder-first mentality. A Trend subsidiary, Trend Discovery LP, has an audited track record of uncorrelated outperformance of the S&P 500 since inception.

ZEST FRESH™ and Zest Labs™ are trademarks of Zest Labs, Inc.

Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements related to our completion of the Louisiana oil well and our planned oil drilling projects. The words “believe,” “may,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “should,” “plan,” “could,” “target,” “potential,” “is likely,” “will,” “expect” and similar expressions, as they relate to us, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management’s current expectations and beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions concerning future events. Such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and other important factors, such as market and other conditions, many of which are outside management’s control. Additional factors or events that could cause our actual results to differ may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all of them. Among the risks that may affect these forward-looking statements are the uncertainties caused by the war in Ukraine, the potential for an economic recession, volatility of oil prices and supply including actions taken by the United States government. Additional risks and uncertainties are identified and discussed in Ecoark’s filings with the SEC, including the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021, and prospectus supplement dated August 4, 2021. Any forward-looking statement made by us herein speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Additional factors or events that could cause our actual results to differ may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all of them. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by law.

Contact:

Investor Relations:
Marc Silverberg, ICR
Brian McBride, Ecoark
1-800-762-7293
investorrelations@ecoarkusa.com