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March 20 (Reuters) - Gulfsands Petroleum Plc said itwas in talks with its major shareholders to secure immediateworking capital as it struggles to repay some debt and continuefunding operations.
The oil and gas producer said it would require about $11million to repay a loan to Dubai-based Arawak Energy and another$15 million for planned operational activities.
Arawak, which in November had agreed to provide a $20million loan to fund the development of the company's Moroccaninterests, withdrew the support earlier this year, citing theevents surrounding Gulfsands' general meeting and its largestshareholder.
Waterford Finance and Investment Ltd, which owns about 26.5percent of Gulfsands, had called for the removal of ChiefExecutive Mahdi Sajjad and Commercial Director Kenneth Judge,alleging that the management failed to build a viable businessoutside Syria.
Shareholders defeated all resolutions to dissolve the boardand voted only to remove Judge from the board in a generalmeeting held in February.
Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Sam Wahab said Friday'sannouncement was another setback for the company, which has beenunder pressure since December 2011 when its key Syrian projectwas suspended due to sanctions.
"Access to capital in the current climate is hard to comeby... however, we do highlight that Gulfsands have a compellingacreage position in multiple hydrocarbon provinces," Wahab saidin a note.
Gulfsands said it would need access to about $15 million ofnew capital to fund its planned operational activities for thenext 12 months.
The company had net working capital of about $3 million atMarch 1, it said.
Gulfsands also said it intended to sell or farm-down itsinterests in Tunisia and Colombia.
Shares in the company fell as much as 18 percent to 22.6pence in thin trading on Friday on the London Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bengaluru; Editing byGopakumar Warrier)