Gulf Keystone Petroleum (LON:GKP) told investors that it has now received a £250,000 interim payment from Excalibur Ventures LLC.
Last month, on June 28, Gulf Keystone revealed that it had been awarded costs in the latest phase of their protracted legal battle with Excalibur Ventures, which is claiming up to 30 per cent of the company’s blocks in Kurdistan.
Excalibur had 14 days to make the interim payment, and it has now been received.
June’s decision follows the injunction awarded in April preventing Excalibur from pursuing its arbitration proceedings in the International Chamber of Commerce until a final determination on its claim has been made in the English Commercial Court.
The date for the trial in London will be set after the next hearing on July 26.
In this afternoon’s statement Gulf Keystone reiterated that it vigorously to dispute and contest the allegations and claims asserted by Excalibur.
Gulf Keystone, which operates in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, has some of the world’s most exciting oil targets.
Its flagship Shaikan is deemed to contain anywhere between 5 and 15 billion barrels of oil, and this is just one of its prospects.
The company is in the middle of a high-impact drilling campaign that could utterly transform its fortunes and those of the entire region. And with communication between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government improving, the group is even preparing to export the oil from its extended test facilities.