TIRANA (Albania), February 11 (SeeNews) – Canada-based Pennine Petroleum Corporation said on Monday it is in contact with four potential investors wishing to participate in its Velca Block production sharing agreement (PSA) in Albania.
Pennine is working hard to secure investors as it moves toward drilling activities in Velca Block, the chief executive officer of Pennine Petroleum, Desmond Smith, said in a statement.
“We have a number of active irons in the fire,” Smith said. "Investment has been a bit of a challenge, but we have four potential participant groups we continue to work with to make this happen.”
According to the statement, the four leads include: a group of Eastern European investors, who are encouraging oilfield service and supply companies to participate in a private placement; high-net-worth individuals in London, via a broker, who are actively interested in investing dollars outside of the UK; a financial institution in France, which has expressed interest in a convertible debenture arrangement; and a joint venture partnering with existing UK and European firms with a desire to enter the Albanian/Mediterranean basins.
“There are administrative milestones that need to be addressed regarding the Velca Block; we’ve been very busy in our dealings with these four potential investor groups, and we expect to address those milestones in very short order,” Smith added.
The Velca Block concession contains a best-case inferred recoverable resource of 26.4 million barrels of oil, Pennine said. The Velca Block is located 10 km southeast of the port city of Vlore, in southern Albania.
To date, Pennine has advanced the Velca Block project forward considerably from a technical perspective, spending about $250,000 (282,931euro) on the acquisition and reinterpretation of seismic data.
The PSA envisages an exploration phase and a drilling phase. The drilling phase will be four years, in which the company is obliged to drill at least two wells to a depth of 2,500 meters or more.
The Velca Block is located 10 km southeast of the port city of Vlore, in southern Albania.
($ = 0.88288 euro)