Finder Exploration Pty Ltd announces that they have entered into a farm-out agreement which provides for Shell Development (Australia) Proprietary Limited (“Shell”) to earn a 50% interest and Operatorship in Exploration Permit for Petroleum AC/P 52 (“Permit”).
The Permit is located in the Northern Browse Basin and is north of the Poseidon major gas discovery and the approved Ichthys and Prelude developments.
The farm-out agreement provides that Shell will earn its interest in the Permit through cash payments and funding a percentage of the drilling costs of the Cronus-1 exploration well in the Permit up to an agreed cap.
Jan Ostby , Finder’s Managing Director, said: “It is fantastic to secure Shell, a world class, proven and respected Operator, to undertake the planning and drilling of the Cronus-1 exploration well. With exploration success there would be multiple potential routes to commercialisation. The Cronus prospect is a multi-TCF gas prospect which was matured using the Cartier West MC3D seismic dataset and we are looking forward to the drilling of this opportunity.”
The transaction is subject to various government approvals and registration following which the participating interests in the Permit will be:
– Finder Exploration Pty Ltd – 20%
– Sasol Australia Petroleum Ltd – 30%
– Shell Development (Australia) Pty Ltd (Operator) – 50%
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Press Release, August 20, 2013