LONDON (Alliance News) - Infrastrata PLC on Thursday said it is "at an advanced stage" in its negotiations with its last two potential offtake partners for its Islandmagee gas storage project.
The company expects these negotiations will conclude "in the near future" and considers it possible that the company could obtain an offtake deal for all seven of the caverns in its first and second phases at Islandmagee, which could advance its final investment decision for phase two by around 12 months to the fourth quarter of 2019 instead of the fourth quarter of 2020.
The result of this, however, would be that the FID is delayed by six months to the end of 2019 as its first and second phases will now be addressed together.
If this did occur, a convertible loan facility could be provided by a "potential equity partner".
"As we reach the final stage of our offtake negotiations an additional scenario has arisen that may see FID taken for phases 1 and 2 at the same point in time, which may affect our previously advised FID date of H1 2019 for phase 1. We are extremely pleased with the rate of progress of all the negotiations that are ongoing and are confident of reaching a conclusion on our offtake negotiations in the near future, which will in turn drive the other workstreams in the project," said Chief Executive John Wood.
Shares in Infrastrata closed 12% lower at 0.66 pence on Thursday.