Proactive Investors - Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas Ltd chief executive Gil Holzman said he is pleased to report substantial progress across a number of fronts in its "exciting" exploration portfolio, as the AIM-quoted explorer released its third-quarter financial.
Eco ended December with some US$14.5mln of cash and was debt free, the company noted in the statement.
Operationally, the emphasis has been on the advancement of potentially high-impact exploration opportunities in South Africa, Namibia and Guyana. Deal-making and partnership efforts are ongoing.
Holzman highlighted that the explorer remains excited for its potential in 2023 and it intends to keep investors updated as activities progress over the course of the year.
“Following our drilling campaign on Block 2B, offshore South Africa, in Q4 2022, we continue to analyse the well data obtained from the Gazania-1 well,” Holzman said.
“We remain of the view that considerable untapped potential remains in the asset and we are working with our partners on the Block to plan our next steps, in order to deliver value for all stakeholders.
“Significant progress continues to be made on Block 3B/4B, offshore South Africa, with a number of workstreams progressing well. As we have said previously, we are conducting a farm-out process on the licence and we are looking ahead to commencing a two well drilling program once ESIA is completed and permits obtained.”
Holzman added: “Both Guyana and Namibia continue to yield sizeable discoveries, and we are seeing unprecedented levels of interest for exploration assets in these regions.
“As such, we continue to progress our highly strategic acreage positions in both Guyana and Namibia and we look forward to updating the market on our farm-out program in Namibia and our plans for a drilling campaign in Guyana as soon as practically possible.”
The pre-revenue exploration company reported a US$19.4mln loss for the three months ended 31 December 2022.
During the quarter, the company completed its acquisition of an additional 6.25% of the South African block, taking its stake in the project to 26.25% presently.
Africa Oil, the project operator, is preparing a new competent person's report (CPR) reviewing the South Africa project following a phase of 3D data reprocessing as well as the identification of exploration targets and leads.
It is anticipated the farm-out process that is currently underway will seek to divest a total of an overall interest of up to 55% in the project to a new partner and multiple interested parties have engaged in the process.
In Guyana, Eco and its partners have continued to advance efforts to identify an optimal drilling target, with at least one new well envisaged to target the light oil Cretaceous play in the next 12-18 months.
Meanwhile, in Namibia, the company’s interests are being boosted by third-party successes, which may enhance the attractiveness of Eco’s portfolio of four licences.
“Namibia witnessed some of the largest oil exploration discoveries in the world in 2022 and with significant exploration activity set to continue this year, the company believes that its highly strategic acreage in-country will remain of considerable interest to operators looking to enter the region,” Eco said.
It noted that it continues to explore possible farm-out opportunities and will update investors on developments accordingly.