Predator Oil & Gas Holdings plc aims to increase production following its agreement to acquire all the Trinidad and Tobago assets belonging to Challenger Energy Ltd.
SNOWCAP
The purchase, for up to US$8 million, of Columbus Energy (St. Lucia) Ltd includes its business, producing interests and operations’ subsidiaries.
Assets include the three producing fields of Goudron, Inniss Trinity and Icacos, currently averaging 272 bopd of production.
Predator already has a presence in Inniss-Trinity with its CO2 enhanced oil recovery pilot project.
The fields are under an enhanced production sharing contract with Heritage Petroleum while Icacos is under a Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries private mining licence.
Purchaser of the assets is Caribbean Rex Ltd, 51% owned by Predator’s subsidiary T-Rex Resources (Trinidad) Ltd and 49% held by local company West Indian Energy Group.
Predator said it could potentially accelerate drilling the Snowcap-3 development and appraisal well, targeting 2C oil resources of 1.4 million barrels, in the Cory Moruga field.
Production will be restored by the Snowcap-1 well workover.
A further 2P oil resources of 12.91m barrels lie in deeper reservoirs “equivalent to those in the adjacent Moruga West field”.
The purchase agreement also includes fixed assets of workover rigs, plant equipment, storage tanks, vacuum truck, separator and production machinery.
Predator will pay an initial deposit of $250,000 by issuing to Challenger 4,411,641 unrestricted Predator shares.
Following admission of the deposit shares, the company’s total voting rights will be 666,286,395.
On completion of the transaction, the company will pay $750,000 in $250,000 cash and $500,000 unrestricted Predator shares.
Deferred unconditional consideration payments of $750,000, payable in cash, are due in three instalments of $250,000 on each of 31 December 2025, 2026, and 2027.
Contingent payments of up to $2 million are dependent on future production and costs.
The transaction is subject to approval from Challenger shareholders and Heritage Petroleum.
Predator chief executive Paul Griffiths said that the deal would build the operational team with no additional cost and funded by production revenues.
“Management is very confident that it can raise production significantly from the assets being acquired over the next 12 months by applying our know-how from our previous involvement in Inniss-Trinity, new chemical wax treatment technology and an integrated management structure to streamline the decision-making process.
“This is an exciting development for the company and our shareholders that is likely to lead to more high-value drilling and workover opportunities whilst not detracting from the company’s immediate focus on drilling for potentially large gas resources in Morocco.
“The Titanosaurus MOU-5 drilling is currently scheduled to commence on or before 3 March 2025.”