TIRANA (Albania), August 1 (SeeNews) – Canada-based Pennine Petroleum Corporation said on Wednesday it has established a “virtual data room” for potential joint venture partners wishing to participate in its Albania’s Velca Block production sharing agreement (PSA).
“This virtual data room contains all the geological, geophysical and agreement materials for potential third parties to make a quick assessment around participation,” the chief executive officer of Pennine Petroleum, Desmond Smith, said in a statement.
“So far, we’ve issued five access permissions in the past week to interested parties canvassed by Pennine,” Smith said, adding that the corporation is also in the initial stages of addressing a Heads of Agreement for development of the Velca Block with one of these parties.
Joint venture participation is one financing alternative being pursued by Pennine in order to advance Velca Block drilling activities, the corporation said, adding that another option is raising funds on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
“Nomads and brokers with the LSE are anxious to participate in Pennine’s plans through the initial prospectus offering process and listing,” Smith noted.
Pennine said in February it expected to start spudding for its earning oil well No. 1 in Velca Block in early third quarter of 2018.
In late November 2017, following final approval from Albania’s government, Pennine finalized a production sharing agreement (PSA) for the Velca Block as part of a joint venture with Albania’s state-owned oil and gas company Albpetrol.
The final approval of the PSA for the Velca Block means that Pennine has the rights to withdraw available geotechnical data for the block from Albania’s infrastructure and energy ministry, engage geophysical consultants to re-process it and integrate the data with previously collected geological information.
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, spreading on an area of 306 sq km.