WHL placement to progress Seychelles

Perth-based WHL Energy says its heavily oversubscribed $10 million share placement will provide the funds to progress its Seychelles oil and gas project towards farm-out and drilling.

WHL said the funds, raised through a placement to institutional and sophisticated investors at 3.2 cents per share, would be used to complete the Seychelles seismic acquisition program.

The data interpreted from the acquisition would provide WHL crucial additional information to identify prospects suitable for drilling, the company said.

WHL Energy's chief executive, David Rowbottam, said the interpretation of the new data would also be an important element in securing potential farm-in partnerts.

"The strong take-up of this share placement, which was very heavily overbid, is further good news for WHL Energy and its shareholders and demonstrates the significant investor and industry interest being received by WHL Energy for its highly prospective Seychelles oil and gas portfolio," Mr Rowbottam said.

"The placement follows close-on-the-heels of Monday's announcement that an independent report has confirmed the potential of 12 leads across 4 different plays in our highly prospective Seychelles exploration holdings."

An independent expert's report estimated that the Seychelles deposit has the potential to contain unrisked mean oil in place of between 166 million barrels and 5.44 billion barrels per lead.

At 10:05AM (WST) WHL shares had gained 11 per cent, to trade at 4 cents.