logo-loader

Rialto Energy forms African alliance with Vitol

Published: 08:20 24 Apr 2013 AEST

no_picture_pai

Rialto Energy (ASX: RIA) has entered into a term sheet with Dutch energy and commodity trading company Vitol for the development of its Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana assets.

Vitol will acquire a 65% interest in Rialto Energy (Côte d’Ivoire) in exchange for providing US$50 million in of capital to be invested in a work program for Block CI-202.

It will also acquire a 20% interest in Rialto Energy (Ghana) by providing a facility to cover Rialto’s US$7.7 million obligations for the drilling of the high-impact Starfish-1 exploration well on the Accra Block in Ghana.

Rialto Energy (Côte d’Ivoire) holds an 85% stake in Block CI-202 while Rialto Energy (Ghana) holds Rialto’s 12.5% participating interest in the Accra Block.

This will allow Rialto and Vitol to undertake further technical work to define the existing contingent and prospective resource in Block CI-202 ahead of any further drilling.

Rialto will also maintain its exposure to the high-impact Starfish-1 well in Ghana that is anticipated to spud in June 2013 targeting 292 million barrels gross prospective unrisked mean resources.

Separately, Block CI-01 operator Afren (LON: AFR) has expressed a willingness to examine the possibility of jointly developing the gas resources in blocks CI-01 and CI-202 to meet the Government of Côte d’Ivoire’s objectives and the national imperative to secure early additional gas supply.

Rialto has also decided to terminate its contract with Vantage Drilling Company to drill wells in Block CI-202 this year.

It noted that this will allow further work to be undertaken on the exploration targets in Block CI-202 and to facilitate the Vitol Transaction.

Rialto has only recently taken delivery of the Pre-Stack Depth Migration study performed on the 3D seismic acquired in January 2012, and further analytical work is ongoing.

The company had about US$15 million in cash and continues to review its funding options in relation to the work programs in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.

 

Proactive Investors Australia is the market leader in producing news, articles and research reports on ASX “Small and Mid-cap” stocks with distribution in Australia, UK, North America and Hong Kong / China.

Australian Strategic Materials signs US$600 million LoI

Rowena Smith, CEO and managing director of Australian Strategic Materials Ltd (ASX:ASM, OTC:ASMMF), joins Jonathan Jackson in the Proactive studio to discuss the company’ s Dubbo Project, in Central West New South Wales. This project aims to extract and process critical minerals and rare earth...

5 hours, 45 minutes ago