- 01Bounty to acquire PetroQuest Liberia Deep Water.
- 02LB-32 PSC, Harper Basin; 3D/2D seismic data.
- 03$3.5m two-tranche placement; cornerstone backers.
Bounty Oil & Gas NL (ASX: BUY) will make its entry into deepwater Liberia, on the western coast of Africa, with the proposed acquisition of US-based PetroQuest Liberia Deep Water LLC.
PetroQuest holds a letter of engagement with the National Oil Company of Liberia over a production sharing contract (PSC) for deepwater exploration block LB-32, 2,322 square kilometres of Liberia’s Harper Basin in water depths ranging from 1,500m to 4,200m bounded to the south-east by the Cape Palmas transform, which separates the basin from the Ivorian basins of Côte d’Ivoire.
The last unlicenced block in the Harper Basin at the time PetroQuest secured the rights in October, LB-32 is covered by 656 sq km of modern 3D seismic and 753 line kilometres of 2D seismic, which Bounty intends to access to complete high-level due diligence.
Initial interpretations indicate that LB-32 contains a significant portion of deepwater fan prospects Jupiter and Zeus and the surrounding coastline could be the conjugate margin to Guyana, which has been subject to a string of oil discoveries in the past 12 months and a subsequent uptick in interest from the region’s major players.
Bounty believes the quality and coverage of the seismic could give it a reasonable chance of defining drill-ready prospects for use in farm-out negotiations and the company is in advanced negotiations for commercial terms to purchase the dataset.
Two-Tranche Placement
Consideration for the acquisition will be funded by a $3.5 million two-tranche placement to sophisticated and professional investors for the issue of 295.6 million shares priced at $0.012 each.
The raising has been cornerstoned by Tribeca Investment Partners, L1 Capital Global Opportunities Master Fund and S3 Consortium (Stocks Digital), with sole lead manager Oakley Capital Partners given the discretion to raise a further $3m on the same terms if it sees fit.
Proceeds from the raising wil also be used for costs associated with LB-32 (including the PSC and reprocessing of 3D seismic data) as well as Bounty’s existing projects and general working capital.
Bounty will pay Oakley a fee equating to 6% of gross placement proceeds (approximately $212,850) and 6% of total shares issued (approximately 17.7 million shares).
High-Impact Opportunity
Bounty’s board of directors said the proposed acquisition would provide exposure to a high-impact offshore exploration opportunity in Liberia, subject to the completion of conditions precedent.
“The acquisition of PetroQuest represents a significant opportunity for Bounty to secure exposure to a deepwater exploration block in the Harper Basin while maintaining a disciplined structure that links material vendor upside to independent technical validation and farm-out delivery,” it said.
“Our immediate focus will be on completing due diligence, progressing the PSC pathway and obtaining approvals required to move the transaction to completion.
“This comes at a time when there have been significant movements by majors in the same play fairway in Liberia and adjoining jurisdictions including TotalEnergies, Petrobras, and ExxonMobil.”
PetroQuest expects PSC negotiations and Liberian parliamentary approvals to be concluded by early 2027.
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