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Pancontinental Oil & Gas NL is very pleased to announce that it has reached agreement with EL 0037 co-venturer Paragon Holdings Limited (“Paragon”) for Pancontinental to purchase 10% of Paragon’s interest in the EL 0037 licence for US$4 million.
Pancontinental will now pay Paragon US$2 million and will pay a further US$2 million upon the first of (i) Pancontinental farming out any interest in EL 0037; or (ii) 6 months after the effective date of the transaction. Ministerial approval of the transaction has now been granted. The transaction reduces Paragon’s interest in EL 0037 to 5% and increases Pancontinental’s interest to 95%. Pancontinental is the operator of the EL 0037 Joint Venture. EL 0037 is an Exploration Licence covering 17,295 sq km in the Walvis Basin offshore Namibia.
Paragon is a prominent diversified Namibian investment company. Paragon’s interest in EL 0037 is “free carried” to the extent of its percentage interest (now 5%) by Pancontinental up to the commencement of the development of any oil or gas discovery.
Pancontinental’s CEO and Director Barry Rushworth commented-
“Pancontinental has strategically acquired an additional 10% in licence EL 0037, bringing itsholding to 95% over a prospective area of more than 17,000 sq km. Pancontinental is now one of the largest net acreage holders offshore Namibia amongst companies including Petrobras, BP, Repsol, HRT and Maurel et Prom.
With the exception of Petrobras, Pancontinental is the only company with significant exploration acreage in both East Africa and Namibia. Pancontinental sees these two regions as the most promising exploration frontiers globally.
East Africa is only just starting to show its full potential and exploration offshore Namibia is about one or two years behind.
Pancontinental believes that its Namibian acreage is one of the few areas covering an oil generating “sweet spot” where oil prone source rocks are sufficiently buried to generate oil; similar to its four projects offshore Kenya. At least six wells are planned offshore Namibia over the next 12 to 18 months. New techniques such as 3D seismic are enhancing exploration in a way never seen before. While the Company is very pleased to have increased its interest in EL 0037, we are also pleased to retain Paragon as our co-venturer, albeit with a reduced percentage interest”.
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