Mosman Oil & Gas Share News (MSMN)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Mosman Oil and Gas Ltd Wednesday said it has completed its acquisition of OilCo Pty Ltd, which holds Australian oil exploration permits, and is making progression in its attempted acquisition of Trident Energy Ltd.

The acquisition of OilCo, a subsidiary of High Peak Royalties Ltd, adds permit EP156 to Mosman's portfolio and an application for EP(A)155, both in the Amadeus Basin in central Australia. Exploration is due to commence next month, it said.

Meanwhile, the acquisition of Trident is "progressing" after Trident directors recommended shareholder's accept the offer, Mosman said. Acceptances for 47.2% of the issued capital of Trident have been received, including acceptances by all Trident directors of their respective holdings.

Mosman said that the permits gained from OilCo will go well with Trident's permits. Planning for three exploration permits located in the prospective Canning, Amadeus and Otway basins has already commenced. A meeting with the joint venture partner for the Otway Basin permit has been scheduled for late October, the company added.

"Mosman has made significant progress with the execution of its strategy to build a portfolio of oil and gas assets, growing from two exploration areas at the time of the listing on AIM earlier this year, to four permits in three areas and pending the successful completion of the Trident acquisition, seven permits in five areas," said Chairman John Barr.

Drilling of Crestal-2 in New Zealand will commence on September 15 with preparation of the drill site completed as planned, it said. Flow testing for Crestal-2 and two further wells, Crestal-1 and CrossRoads-1, will be undertaken after the drilling of Crestal-2.

Cores have been taken from Cross Roads-1 and Crestal-1 and have been analysed. Further work will include extraction of oil from the core and testing the extracted oil to assist the ongoing process of measuring reservoir parameters, it said.

Drilling of additional wells will be based on the combined data from drilling, testing and seismic results, with additional wells in 2014 anticipated to commence after the flow testing of Crestal-2, Crestal-1 and CrossRoads-1, it said.

"Mosman has recently reprocessed all existing seismic in the area, with good results. An additional programme of seismic is currently being acquired, and together these results will be evaluated and used to optimise the planned additional 2014 wells, and anticipated 2015 wells," it said.

"As we expand the asset portfolio we are now building the core expertise required for this level of activity, and planning for further growth, without incurring unnecessary overheads," added Barr.

Mosman's shares were up 6.6% to 24.65 pence per share Wednesday morning.

By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance

Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.