North Sea oilfield developer Ithaca Energy (LON:IEA, CVE:IAE) is opening talks with a number of parties in regards to a potential sale of the company.
This morning Ithaca told investors that it has received unsolicited approaches from a number of interested parties.
It follows the confidential and non-binding approach from an undisclosed party in January.
Ithaca says it is in shareholders best interest for the company to hold talks with all bona fide interested parties with a view to maximising shareholder value.
The company’s principal asset is its operated 22.5 per cent stake in the Athena oilfield. The field has 24.4 million barrels of 2P oil reserves and production was expected to start in the final quarter of 2011. However the delivery of a floating production vessel was delayed.
Fellow AIM oil firm Lochard Energy (LON:LHD, ASX:LHD) has a 10 per cent stake in Athena.
Yesterday it was revealed that production vessel has now departed from Dubai. And Ithaca currently expects production to kick off early in the next quarter.
The company said that all production critical equipment was run and fully tested prior to the departure, minimizing the period between arriving in the field and first production of oil.
Athena is expected to produce 22,000 barrels of oil per day.
Mergers & acquisitions, or M&A, is a hot topic in the junior oil and gas sector at the moment. In recent months several companies have come into play.
In the North Sea Premier Oil and EnQuest have already agreed deals with each firm buying up new assets. Premier Oil’s £221 million takeover of EnCore was agreed in October. And in January EnQuest struck two separate deals to acquire a 45 per cent stake in the Kraken oilfield development.
Elsewhere other AIM stocks, notably Cove Energy and Bowleven, have also been in the takeover spotlight.