Africa-focused exploration group Lekoil says it remains confident it will be able to go ahead with the proposed $30million acquisition of a stake in a major Nigerian licence.
The company posted an after-tax loss of $8.7million for the first half of the year, with more than $5million of that tied into the costs of the company’s AIM flotation earlier this year.
But the company, which has drawn down from a loan with Afren and secured a further £13.2million for drilling in the region, says it expects to be able to secure the funds for the purchase and development of the OML 113 licence.
Lekoil is looking to take a 6.5% stake in the offshore licence, which is thought to contain up to 198million barrels of oil equivalent
“We are successfully executing our strategy to build a business focused on West Africa that will be diversified across lower risk production assets and appraisal projects and higher risk exploration assets in both known exploration basins and newly discovered basins,” said chief executive Lekan Akinyanmi.
The company said it was close to completing its first discovery in the region, the Ogo-1 well, with drilling having reached 16,000ft from a targeted 17,900ft.