Swala Energy to seek alternative funding for drilling in East Africa
Posted on : Thursday , 27th November 2014
Board members of Australian explorer Swala Energy have said the company will be seeking alternative funding to finance its drilling obligations ahead of its planned campaign in 2015 after a Share Purchase Plan which closed 17th November 2014.
The Share Purchase Plan was withdrawn after Swala’s board observed that it was not in the best interest of shareholders given the current equity market conditions and potential adverse effect on the Company’s recent share price.
The SPP Offer was intended to raise funds not exceeding $5.0 million to be applied to fund additional near-term work on the Company’s Tanzanian and Kenyan licences, as well as for business development and general administrative purposes.
This sum being sought will be used for additional work (particularly in Block 12B),basin modelling work and long-lead items for drilling in Tanzania, business development and general administrative expenditure.
Among drilling set for 2015 includes a well in block 12B where the company has identified a series of ten leads and prospects from which one (‘Ahero –“A”’) has been selected as a drilling target to be drilled in the second calendar half.
In Tanzania the company is in the process of interpreting data from a 200 km 2D seismic acquired over the Moshi Basin in the Pangani licence with preliminary interpretation of these new data allowing it to identify a number of potential structural leads which, after final processing of the field data, are expected to define potential targets for a 2015 drilling programme.
Swala has a 29.2% net participating interest in the Pangani license, 29.2% net participating interest in the Kilosa-Kilombero license both in Tanzania and a 25% net participating interest in Kenya’s Block 12B.
Swala expects another 25% interest once Spain’s Compañía Española de Petróleos CEPSA re-assigns it back its share after its decision to withdraw from the licence on 31st August 2014.