Central Petroleum is in talks to attract new joint venture partners for its ambitious helium project in the Northern Territory near the South Australian border.
The company, which is also exploring for oil and gas in the same arid region, also declined to confirm reports that Queensland billionaire Clive Palmer had taken a stake in Central Petroleum via its $11 million institutional placement completed yesterday.
Dalton Hallgren, the company's acting chief executive since the ousting of founder John Heugh last week, said all would be revealed when disclosures were made to the Australian Securities Exchange next week.
It is understood Mr Palmer is interested in the company's Australian coal projects.
The placement will fund ongoing appraisal and/or drilling work, slated to start in the next week or two, at its Surprise oil discovery.
Central Petroleum hopes to gain first cashflow from Surprise, which combined with financial contributions from joint venture partners will be used to progress its Mt Kitty helium prospect.
The company is already working with BOC Global Helium Inc on the prospect.
Helium is used in new-generation pebble bed nuclear reactors and is in short supply worldwide.
Mr Hallgren admitted that the remoteness of the company's projects, smack in the middle of the country, posed challenges in terms of engineering, design and equipment procurement.
"The infrastructure to be put in place to develop a helium play is quite extensive and obviously we need some pretty deep pockets to be able to do that," he told AAP on Thursday.
"On that note, we're moving forward with some potential joint venture partners and farm-in partners."
He said potential helium reservoirs in Australia other than Mt Kitty had been spotted by rival companies, but Central Petroleum was currently the only firm in the nation actively chasing the sought-after gas.
Broker Patersons recently slapped a "speculative buy" recommendation on Central Petroleum, which has a whopping 1.25 billion shares on issue.
Separately, the company has pledged to vigorously defend legal action in the Supreme Court of Western Australia commenced by Mr Heugh following the termination of his employment, although he remains a non-executive director.
Shares in Central Petroleum were down half a cent, or 4.76 per cent, at 10 cents at 1347 AEST.
