Wessex Exploration, the Bristol-based hydrocarbon prospecting company, has raised £12m in a placing to fund its participation in a vast oil find off the coast of Guyane (French Guiana) in South America.
The company – which also has interests in projects in the Mozambique Channel, Southern England and Western Sahara – has a 1.25% working interest in the Guyane Maritime Exclusive Exploration Licence which includes the area known as the Zaedyus discovery.
Wessex said in a Stock Exchange statement that the directors "believe that the Zaedyus discovery is a company-changing event and have every intention of remaining part of the consortium to enable shareholders to benefit further from the expected positive outcome of any appraisal drilling and future development. Therefore, it is important that Wessex has the resources to react without delay to any financial requirements of the project".
It raised the £12m, before expenses, through an institutional placing of 240m new ordinary shares of 0.1p each at a price of 5p per share. It is expected that the shares, subject to shareholder approval at the company AGM, will be admitted to trading on AIM on December 7. Bluebird Energy, another Bristol-based oil and gas exploration company, subscribed for more than 10.5m ordinary shares in the placing at a cost of £534,700. Bluebird directors David Bramhill, Andrew Yeo and Frederik Dekker are also Wessex directors. The new purchase will take Bluebird's total holding in Wessex to almost 65m ordinary shares, a stake of about 9%.
Tullow Oil, which announced the Zaedyus discovery in September, is a 27.5% stakeholder in the project. It operates the well along with Shell (45%), Total (25%) and Northpet Investments (2.5%), a 50/50 joint venture company owned by Wessex and Northern Petroleum. Shell is expected to take over the running of the project in early 2012, subject to government and joint venture approval.
