The International Court of Arbitration has found in favour of Oilex (ASX:OEX, LON:OEX) subsidiary Oilex West Kampar Ltd in its claim against the operator, and stakeholder, of the West Kampar PSC joint venture, for the recovery of US$4.6m owed to Oilex. The West Kampar PSC is located in Central Sumatra, Indonesia.
Oilex is the majority stakeholder in the West Kampar PSC joint venture, with a 67.5% participating interest - including 22.5% under Power of Attorney - and PT Sumatera Persada Energi (SPE) owns the remaining equity in the project.
The company was entitled to have an additional 22.5% assigned to its holding through the exercise of its rights under the Power of Attorney, granted by SPE following the failure of SPE to repay funds due. The company said it will not pursue this assignment, if it is paid the funds due.
Oilex commenced the ICC Arbitration against PT Asiabumi Petroleo - the parent company of SPE - in Singapore in April 2009, following the failure of SPE to repay a debt owing to Oilex in early 2009. According to Oilex, the debt was in relation to a previous agreement between OIlex and SPE, and SPE's obligations to repay the debt were secured by a parent company guarantee granted by Asiabumi to Oilex in 2008.
Oilex told investors that it will now immediately pursue the enforcement of the award against Asiabumi to recover the amount due.
Earlier today, Oilex announced it had completed the interpretation of 3D seismic data in offshore Western Australia, on the WA-388-P permit, which is on trend with the Pluto, Wheatstone, and Gorgon fields. According to Oilex, a portfolio of leads and play types has been developed with 7 leads identified ranging in potential size from 0.3 to 2.8 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of prospective gas resource.
The company said that the past 4 months of work confirm that the seismic amplitude anomalies, evident in the 3D seismic data, are likely Direct Hydrocarbon Indicators (DHI), which suggests the presence of gas by analogy with nearby fields and discoveries.
Given this positive result, the joint venture is now considering options to further define the largest of the leads in preparation for possible drilling.