Page 7 - Euroil Week 06 2020

EurOil INVESTMENT EurOil
Ithaca eyes asset spin-off
UK
The global investment partner is reported to be BlackRock.
NORTH Sea-focused Ithaca subsidiary has signed a letter of intent (LoI) with a global invest- ment firm to form a new company to manage two of its production assets.
The document sets out a plan for the joint venture between Ithaca and the global invest- ment firm to buy the operator’s FPF-1 floating production facility and its 85% share of a float- ing, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, Ithaca’s Israeli parent company Delek said in a statement on February 9. The assets are sta- tioned at the Stella and Captain oil and gas fields respectively.
Ithaca will have 40% of the joint venture, while the investment firm will take a 60% share. A source told Reuters that the investment firm in question was New York-based BlackRock. But the asset manager has not confirmed this.
The transaction is subject to due diligence, and the price the joint venture will pay for the assets will depend on production levels,
reserves and other factors, Ithaca’s Israeli parent firm Delek said in a statement on February 9, although it should range between $875mn and $1.05bn.
Delek noted that the partners intended to consider adding further assets to the joint ven- ture beyond those bought from Ithaca, in order to maximise and create value. This may include some currently held by the investment firm.
Ithaca closed a $2bn deal in November last year to acquire the UK offshore assets of Chev- ron, including stakes in 10 producing fields, net- ting a combined 80,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd). Delek is now looking at options for growing the North Sea business even further.
Once such option is an initial public offering (IPO) at Ithaca, due to take place later this year. There are currently a long line of UK and Norwe- gian producers waiting to float their stock. Com- panies have therefore delayed offerings, fearing a lacklustre response from investors. ™
i3 shares up on farm-out progress
UK
i3 needs funding
for a new appraisal campaign starting in mid-2020.
SHARES in i3 Energy were up more than 12% in the morning of February 13, after the Lon- don-listed junior announced progress in its North Sea farm-out talks.
The company said it was making “good pro- gress” in the process of securing a partner at its wholly-owned Serenity and Liberator discover- ies in the outer Moray Firth.
“Thedataroomisnowopenandcompanies are actively evaluating the opportunity. We will update the market as discussions progress,” it informed investors in a filing.
Shares were up 12.34% at £0.0865 as of 10:30 UK time.
The company also clarified that it intended to hold a secondary listing for “administrative reasons,” denying market rumours that it was readying for an imminent equity placing. i3 announced the listing on February 7, causing its share price to slide 8.6% in early trading that day.
The listing is due to take place by April 30, but i3 is yet to say at which stock exchange.
i3 has just completed a three-well exploration and appraisal campaign at Liberator and Seren- ity. The two appraisal wells at the 63mn-barrel Liberator field, where i3 plans to start producing 20,000 barrels per day later this year, fell short of expectations.
However, the probe at Serenity confirmed a 200mn-barrel resource with “strong commercial potential.”i3thinksSerenitymaybesuitableasa tie-back to the nearly Tain oilfield, which Repsol Sinopec Resources UK is weighing up whether to develop.
i3 is now preparing for a new appraisal pro- gramme that should kick off in mid-2020. But first, it needs a funding partner.
“The team is very much looking forward to conducting a high-impact drilling campaign starting in late summer, and the ongoing site survey being conducted by Fugro will ensure we have the data required to appraise anywhere within the mapped extents of Serenity or Liber- ator,” i3 CEO Majid Shafiq said in a statement earlier this month. ™
Week 06 13•February•2020 w w w. N E W S B A S E . c o m P7