Odyssey Marine Exploration Reports Second Quarter 2020 Results

TAMPA, Fla., Aug. 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMEX), a deep-ocean exploration pioneer engaged in the discovery, development and extraction of deep-ocean minerals, reported results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2020, and provided an update on current company operations and projects.

Odyssey’s key focus during the quarter continued to be the Exploraciones Oceanicas (ExO) phosphate project in Mexico. This project could provide access to a critical resource needed to produce fertilizer, helping to provide food security to the Mexican people and supplying the phosphate needs of North America for at least 50 years.

Odyssey’s legal teams are working two separate, but concurrent processes, while Odyssey continues to work through diplomatic channels in attempts to reach a mutually beneficial agreement with Mexico. “Odyssey is ready to move this important project forward for the benefit of the people of Mexico as well as our shareholders,” said Mark Gordon, Odyssey Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “We continue to work in good faith with the current administration to reach a mutually beneficial outcome for the project. While we are hopeful an agreement will be reached, we must continue to pursue our North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) claim against Mexico to protect our shareholders’ rights.”

The merits of Odyssey’s NAFTA claim against Mexico are extremely strong. Odyssey’s NAFTA legal team will file the company’s first Memorial in the coming weeks. The Memorial will be Odyssey’s first filing in this case and will lay out the strong and compelling evidence supporting Odyssey’s claim. This will be Mexico’s first opportunity to review the evidence, which strongly corroborates the prior unanimous decision of Mexico’s own federal court (the Tribunal Federal de Justicia Administrativa or TFJA) in 2018 that the denial of the environmental permit was illegal under Mexican environmental law.

The filing will also make clear that the denial was not due to any valid environmental reasons, and, in fact, was ready to be approved until Rafael Pacchiano, Mexico’s former Secretary of the Environmental and Natural Resources, intervened and unexpectedly ordered that the permit be denied for political reasons.

While the NAFTA legal team focuses on that filing, the Mexican legal team continues to pursue the case at the TFJA seeking the annulment of the second arbitrary denial of the environmental permit by Pacchiano in 2018. ExO’s latest filing in this court was submitted on August 3, 2020.