Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC) has successfully raised $3.25million through the issue of 260,000,000 Placing Shares at a price of 1p each.
The proceeds will be used to complete a farm-in or other financing sufficient to enable drilling of an exploration well on the company’s southern licences.
Approximately 70% of funds raised with be expended to ensure the company’s licences are maintained in good order pending and through the farm-in process, including covering licence fees and direct in-country costs.
Chairman Bill Schrader said: “BPC has assets that are potentially world class in scale. Over the past eight years the company has substantially delineated and de-risked its assets, both technically and commercially. The next step is drilling.
“In order to do this, BPC needs to source funding, and our strategy remains to do so from an industry partner, via a farm-in. BPC has made pleasing progress on this task, is in active commercial negotiations with a number of parties, and the board and I remain confident that a farm-in will ultimately be concluded as evidenced by our expressed interest in participating in the placing once we are permitted to do so by the closed period trading rules.
“I would like to thank all our existing and new shareholders for their continued support.”
A spokesperson added: “Project fundamentals remain unchanged – potentially multi-billion-barrel prospects, attractive fiscal terms, and proximity to world’s largest oil market with infrastructure and services.”
BCP currently has five exploration licences for oil exploration covering approximately 16,000 km2 (4 million acres) in the territorial waters and maritime Exclusive Economic Zone of The Bahamas.
The five exploration licences, referred to as Bain, Cooper, Donaldson, Eneas – these four licences together referred to as the Southern Licences – and Miami are held through wholly-owned subsidiaries of the company, and were initially awarded on April 26, 2007 for a period of twelve years, with renewal nominally every three years.
The current proposed location of the first exploration well is in the Cooper – Donaldson licensed area, approximately 80 miles from Andros Island and 25 miles from the nearest Cuban islands.
It’s expected to cost between $60million to $80million.