Two North Sea oil and gas veterans are to have their new firm floated on the Alternative Investment Market.
i3 Energy, founded by Neill Carson and Graham Heath, plans to raise money through the placing to progress the North Sea Liberator licence.
The company acquired the field licence for a “low cost” from Dana Petroleum in December.
The 100% owned Liberator licence, in the Moray Firth, is believed to have 9.4million barrels of Contingent Resources. The wider field cluster area is thought to have 16.1 million barrels.
The company, which was founded in 2014, is named i3 because the directors were formerly involved with other North Sea companies starting with the letter “i” – Ithaca Energy and Iona Energy.
First oil could be achieved by the first quarter of 2018, and plans to drill two wells on the prospect have been signed with driller Diamond Offshore, Baker Hughes and Petrofac.
The company’s shares will go on sale when markets open at 8am today, under the ticker “i3E”.
At the Admission Price of 55 pence per share, the company has an initial market capitalisation of £14.1 million.
Neill Carson, chief executive officer of i3 , said “We are pleased to announce our admission to the London Stock Exchange.
“The Liberator field is a high quality, low cost, oil development capable of generating significant value for our shareholders and we remain on track to submit the Liberator field development plan in the near future.
“We are operationally focused on bringing this highly attractive asset into development and are exploring numerous funding options which include supply chain financing and farm-outs.
“We look forward to updating the market on our progress.”
David Knox has joined the board as non-executive chairman while Majid Shafiq and Richard Ames are now non exectuive directors.
Earlier this year i3 raised £6.2million in a private placing to develop the Liberator.
The company is looking at a development plan which will see oil exported through the Blake field and the Bleo Holm FPSO, operated by Repsol Sinopec.
Aberdeen-headquartered Ithaca agreed to a £1billion takeover by Israel’s Delek Group earlier this year.
Iona went into administration early in 2016 after failing to restructure its finances.
Following admission the company will continue to advance negotiations for suitable offtake terms and submit its Field Development Plan for the Liberator field
In addition to preparations for its Liberator development, i3 said it evaluate “potential strategic acquisitions” and will take part in the UK’s upcoming 30th Offshore Licensing Round.
