Oil and gas firm Atlantic Petroleum has postponed its financial results and hired an investment bank to find it a new backer as its partner on a North Sea field dices with bankruptcy.
Faroe-Islands-based Atlantic has a 25% stake in the Orlando Field, located north-east of Shetland, which was expected to
start producing by the end of 2016.
But last week Orlando operator Iona Energy said its efforts to involve a major investor in the project had hit the buffers, leaving it staring liquidation full in the face.
Canadian independent Iona said it did not believe there was a reasonable prospect of securing alternative funding.
Atlantic chief executive Ben Arabo said Iona’s demise “creates uncertainty” for his company, adding that it is “not funded for 2016”.
It has entrusted the task of finding investment to Norwegian investment bank Pareto Securities and has pushed its third quarter accounts back from November 25 to 30.
Atlantic said it is using the extra time to assess the impact of Iona’s plight.
Atlantic enjoyed a record-breaking year as recently as 2012, when it booked profits of £26.4million, but has since run into trouble along with other smaller companies that have been run into the ground by the oil price collapse.
The Press and Journal energy editor Jeremy Cresswell said: “What a pity it is that Atlantic Petroleum should get caught up in this mess.
“It is a junior, as is Iona, but one where cautious persistence and prudence has served it well since being founded by Faroese interests in 1998.”