John Craven, Michael Blaha and Michael Nolan, the main figures who led to the creation and $1.9 billion sale of Cove Energy in 2012, have joined hands again to raise funds to explore oil and gas in waters off Mozambique, the Financial Times reported.
Craven, Blaha and Nolan are now directors of Discover Exploration, which looks to raise about $50 million. The firm is focusing on waters east of Mozambique in the Rovuma Basin. The area is controlled by the island state of the Comoros, a former French colony situated between northern Mozambique and Madagascar.
The three people received around 50 million pounds when Cove Energy was sold to PTT Exploration of Thailand, after a bidding war with Royal Dutch Shell (RDS-A, RDSA.L, RDSB.L, RDS-B). Discover Exploration is backed by the directors’ funds and Dutch privately-held oil producer Oranje-Nassau Energie.
Discover intends to raise additional funds from institutional investors in London. It has signed the first production-sharing contract with the Comoros. The 10-year deal covers a block of 18,000 square kilo meter close to the gas discoveries made in the Mozambique blocks operated by US-based Anadarko Petroleum (APC: Quote) and Italy’s Eni SpA (E).
Anadarko was Cove’s former partner. Cove’s main asset was an 8.5 percent stake in an exploration block operated by Anadarko, which it bought for a headline price of $3.3 million in 2009.
Craven told the Financial Times that Discover is taking a position at a much earlier exploration stage than Cove, which made the purchase of the stake immediately before drilling, thus gaining access to more seismic data on the field’s geological potential.
To receive FREE breaking news email alerts for Cove Energy and others in your portfolio
by RTT Staff Writer
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.comBusiness News