LONDON (Alliance News) - Clontarf Energy PLC and Petrel Resources PLC Wednesday said authorities in Ghana have welcomed them to begin negotiations about obtaining an offshore block over the Tano basin block.
Clontarf shares were up 19% to 0.250 pence per share on Wednesday afternoon whilst Petrel shares were up 10% to 6.34 pence.
Clontarf and Petrel are working together through their stakes in Pan Andean Resources (Ghana) Ltd, holding a 30% and 60% stake respectively in that company, with the other 10% held by local interests in Ghana.
Back in 2014, press reports emerged that authorities in Ghana were about to award an offshore area to a third-party which Pan Andean believed partly made up its own Tano 2A block, which was covered by a petroleum agreement signed back in 2010.
Pan Andean immediately implemented an injunction to prevent authorities from awarding the area in question to another company and launched legal proceedings to protect its asset, but that case was dropped after authorities agreed to provide new land next to their current acreage to replace the land that was lost.
The original block in question covered around one third of Pan Andean's Tano 2A block and was awarded to an American company which is Nigerian operated, CAMAC. The new land offered to Pan Andean helped to preserve the size of the block.
The dispute over the co-ordinates of the area covered by the petroleum agreement arose because that agreement was not approved by the Ghanaian cabinet or parliament.
After Pan Andean and authorities agreed on revised co-ordinates for the agreement, Ghana invited the company to re-apply for an exploration licence over the Tano basin offshore the country.
On Wednesday, Clontarf and Petrel said the Ghanaian Ministry of Petroleum has informed them that authorities have reviewed the proposal put forward by Pan Andean, stating the new block named Lukoil B is "available for negotiations".
Petrel and Clontarf both said they would "confirm our interest and follow up on this prospective acreage," which will add a new, deeper offshore block to the existing Tano 2A block held by the two London-listed firms.
"This new acreage is an offshore block in deeper water than the Tano 2A block which has been the subject of ongoing discussions for many years," said the pair.
Notably, the revised co-ordinates agreed by Pan Andean and authorities effectively removed all onshore elements of the licence and extended the offshore aspect of the asset further south towards Tullow Oil PLC's major Jubilee field - which can currently produce up to a rate of 36,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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Tullow Oil (TLW)
Petrel Resources (PET)
Clontarf (CLON)