Petroceltic Sells Algerian Stake

Posted on April 29, 2011 by contentkings No Comments

Irish exploration company spins off part of major asset.

Petroceltic has sold an 18.4% stake in its exploration licence for Algeria. Enel, the largest power company in Italy and Europe’s second largest utility, will pay $36.75m for the stake in the Isarene license and cover 49% of the costs from the current appraisal of the site, which is expected to generate gas flows by 2015. Algeria’s state-owned energy company, Sonatrach, already owns 25% of the asset.

Shares in the Irish oil and gas exploration company jumped by 12% on foot of the news. The deal, which has to be approved by Algerian authorities, was described by Petroceltic’s Chief Executive Brian O’Cathain as “an important financial support to our ongoing appraisal campaign and future development planning”. Approval is expected to be completed in the next four two to six weeks.