Afren to Acquire a 5% Stake in Promising Exploration Block in Onshore Angola
Wednesday November 22, 10:45 am ET
NEW YORK, Nov. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Nanes Delorme Capital LLC., a New York- based broker-dealer and financial advisory firm, announced that its client, Afren PLC (FTSE/AIM: AFR) ("Afren"), has executed a Heads of Agreement with Gulf Energy Resources ("GER") for the acquisition of a five percent stake in Angola's highly prospective onshore Cabinda Central License Block B (the "License").
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Nanes Delorme Capital LLC is acting as sole financial adviser to Afren in the transaction. Afren is an oil and gas exploration and production company headquartered in London. The transaction is expected to close in the 1Q07, subject to certain conditions including the negotiation of a final Share Purchase Agreement and the lifting of Force Majeure.
The exploration license, located in the Cabinda province, covers an area of 1,125km2 and is operated by Devon Energy (30%) and other partners include Repsol (25%), Sonangol (20%) and Petrogal (20%).
"This strategic acquisition is consistent with Afren's decision to further expand its presence in Western Africa by entering into one of the most promising onshore blocks in the second largest sub-Saharan producing country," said Julien Balkany, Managing Director of Nanes Delorme.
According to Balkany, the License is part of the highly prospective and largely unexplored Angola onshore belt adjacent to the M'Boundi discovery in Congo, the largest onshore oilfield in the region.
"Several attractive prospects and structural leads have already been identified and mapped on this license," Balkany noted. "In addition, 32 wells have been previously drilled, several of which found light oil, providing a very exciting exploration opportunity," he added.
Balkany also said that Devon plans to re-commence exploration work in the License subject to the effectiveness of the production sharing agreement (PSA).
About Nanes Delorme Capital LLC
Nanes Delorme Capital LLC is a U.S. boutique financial advisory services firm involved in a wide range of investment banking and other broker/dealer related activities and is a member of the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) and the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB). Its services include debt and equity private placements, institutional equities and fixed income trading, asset allocation models, portfolio strategy and concentrated stock diversification risk management and hedging strategies. The firm specializes in merger and acquisition advisory services to the oil and gas industry.
About Afren PLC
Afren (www.afren.com) was founded in December 2004 by a management team including as Non-Executive Chairman Dr. Rilwanu Lukman, the former Secretary General and President of OPEC, with the vision to become the leading pan African independent Exploration and Production company. Since its listing on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange, Afren has rapidly expanded its portfolio and the management team has acquired assets in the Joint Development Zone of Nigeria Sao Tome and Principe, Nigeria, Gabon and Congo.
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