Talon Petroleum said today that interest in three of its UK North Sea prospects remained “strong” in spite of the “challenging macroeconomic environment”.
Headquartered in Perth, Australia, Talon said new entrants had joined the farmout process for the Skymoos, Rocket and Vantage prospects in recent weeks.
But the company could not indicate when a deal might be struck, saying timing was “fluid” as potential partners attempt to “complete review and approval processes in changed workplace conditions”, referring to the Covid-19 lockdown.
Talon has applied to the Oil and Gas Authority for work phase extensions to its Rocket and Skymoos licences, which would give it more breathing room to get any deals over the line.
And Talon expects to beef up its UKCS portfolio, having submitted bids for multiple exploration licences in the central North Sea as part of the 32nd round, the results of which should be announced later this quarter.
Talon is “reviewing its portfolio mix” to make sure it can weather the oil price storm and optimise shareholder returns.
The firm said it was in a strong financial position with $1.6m cash at bank at the end of the period.
Talon has been growing its UK portfolio for a few years now.
It kicked off its mini-spree in October 2018 with the acquisition from Corallian Energy of a 10% stake in the 45-million barrel Curlew-A discovery in the prolific Central Graben area.
In January 2019, Talon struck its deal to buy Hertfordshire-based EnCounter Oil, more than doubling the size of its North Sea portfolio. The transaction gave Talon 100%-ownership of the Skymoos and Rocket prospects.
Skymoos, in the outer Moray Firth, could hold more than 100m barrels.
The 27m barrel Rocket prospect lies in the Central Graben Area, near the Catcher field.
The deal also paved the way for EnCounter founder and UK North Sea exploration specialist Graham Dore to join Talon as a non-executive director, while Paul Young came aboard as geoscience manager.
Talon also inherited EnCounter’s base, complete with a data room for showing off the company’s assets to prospective farm-in partners.
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