COPL working to raise cash for Nigeria drilling by end of 3Q

Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited (COPL), an international oil and gas company focused on offshore West Africa, has been in talks over raising funds for the appraisal project at OPL 226 off Nigeria.

COPL said in its second quarter results presentation on Thursday that the company continued to source funds for its appraisal and development project at OPL 226 offshore Nigeria held by through a partnership with Shoreline Energy.

COPL bought 80 percent of the share capital of Essar Nigeria back in September 2016. With it, COPL bought Essar’s sole asset, a 100% interest and operatorship of OPL 226 located 50km offshore in the central area of the Niger Delta.

The acquisition was made through COPL’s 50 percent owned affiliate, Shoreline Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited (ShoreCan).

In an update on Thursday, COPL said it was in discussions with “a select number of oil traders, merchant banks, and service providers through investment bankers COFARCO SAS and Zeus Capital to source required funds for the project.”

“Discussions are advancing well and the company hopes to have the process completed by the end of the third quarter,” said COPL.

According to the company, it is confident that it will meet the target to drill an appraisal well in late 2017 or early 2018 with a subsequent early production scheme in place shortly after that.

Arthur Millholland, president and CEO, said: “We remain focused on developing our attractive oil appraisal and development project in OPL 226, offshore Nigeria. The initial work program will be to drill an appraisal well to the NOA-1 oil discovery and place it on production through an early production scheme.

“This would be followed by the drilling of up to three additional similar wells on the NOA Structure. This phase of the project would precede a full field development. The two investment banks engaged specialize in project financing of African energy ventures.”

COPL also said on Thursday that the company had successfully raised £3,280,000 ($4.26 M) from the marketed sale of common shares to investors primarily in the United Kingdom through the facilities of the London Stock Exchange.

Also, the company’s technical team is continuing to perform geological and geophysical analysis on the rest of block LB-13, offshore Liberia, to decide whether or not to proceed into the third exploration phase of the PSC at LB-13 as the second exploration phase expires on September 25, 2017.

Offshore Energy Today Staff