ERHC Energy Inc (ERHE)

[bitter_genius]

Financial Times reporting on Equator Exploration (AIM:EEL)

A piece in the FT - London states the following:

Equator plans to use the $250m to pay for:

Four new wells in the waters of Nigeria and Sao Tome.
New licences that it is in the process of negotiating with governments in the region.

To quote the FT piece:

"The Gulf of Guinea produces about 10% of the worlds oil and this is expectd to rise in the next 10 years.

ChevonTexaco and ExxonMobil, the global oil companies already drill in the area, and Shell and TotalFina Elf also have operations there. Equator will be competing against these much larger participants for the business.
Equator's market capitalisation following the fundraising with be £630m ($1.1Bn) pushing it into the top-10 listed companies on AIM.

Wade Cherwayki, Equator's CEO said:

"The funds raised will support the company's agressive exploration, appraisal and development drilling program for 2006 as well as the possible acquisition of additional exploration."

Tony Alves, analyst at KBC Peel Hunt, said:

"It is a very ambitious, high risk strategy for the company but it it works it should pay off rapidly."

Equator plans to expand its portfolio of exploration, appraisal and production assets in the Gulf of Guinea. It identified its two blocks through the assessment of seismic data and is in negotiations on production sharing with the government of Sao Tome."

Taken from Financial Times - London 21st February 2006, Page 23 Companies and Markets section.

Hope its useful.

Kind regards



BG