Chariot Oil & Gas Limited (LON:CHAR) boss Larry Bottomley has told investors that the explorer is continuing to screen new ‘value-accretive’ opportunities.
In a statement, ahead of today’s annual general meeting, Bottomley said that as well as looking at potential new projects, the focus for the remainder of this year is on the building and maturing of the group’s offshore portfolio with a view to delivering a funded drilling inventory.
Key to this process are the group’s ongoing farm-out processes – whereby it is seeking to partner with other explorers which will carry future drilling costs.
Chariot’s deal with Eni, which will pay for next year’s Rabat Deep well, is ‘demonstrative of that strategy in action’, according to Bottomley.
The Rabat Deep well, planned for early 2018, will target the JP-1 prospect offshore Morocco which has been estimated to host some 768mln barrels of gross mean prospective oil resources.
Separate farm-out process are meanwhile underway for the group’s assets in Namibia, Morocco and will soon start for Brazil.
In the statement, Bottomley highlighted: “Chariot maintained focus on financial discipline, ending 2016 with $25.0 million in cash, well in excess of its commitments.
“In H1 2017 the completion of the seismic programme in Morocco and the partnering with Eni in Rabat Deep, delivering a capped carry on the RD-1 well expected Q1 2018, means there are now no unfunded work commitments throughout the portfolio.
“Overhead costs remained tightly controlled, whilst the management has been successful in leveraging the overall industry downturn to negotiate favourable seismic rates, thus allowing for counter-cyclical investment in the portfolio.”