WHL lining up partner for Seychelles assets

WHL Energy has attracted the interest of a global energy giant to explore a potential farm-in agreement covering the company’s Seychelles oil and gas assets.

WHL said it had signed a non-binding letter of intent with a top 100 global Fortune 500 company, which it described as an internationally recognised exploration and production operator.

The Seychelles acreage is located off the southern Seychelles coast off the coast of Africa, covering some 21,426 square kilometres of oil and gas exploration interests.

International petroleum consultant Netherland Sewell and Associates estimated a prospective resource of 3.45 billion barrels of oil for 21 of WHL’s most highly-ranked leads at Seychelles, comparing with WHL’s own estimate of 4.03 billion barrels of oil for the same leads

The agreement is not binding, but will set a timetable for discussions with the Seychelles government to advance the proposal, determine commercial terms of a potential farm-in agreement, outline principles for a forward work program for the assets, as well as conditions to progress the negotiation to a binding agreement.

“There were a number of pre-conditions to be met before any legally binding farm-in agreement is signed,” managing director Steve Noske said.

“But the potential farm-inee’s technical capabilities and stature is in line with WHL Energy’s stated aim of partnering with an organisation with the capacity to take the valuable Seychelles asset forward.”

At close of trade today, WHL shares were up 3.8 per cent, trading at 2.7 cents.