Red Emperor Resources NL has announced an oversubscribed placing, through its London Broker, Brandon Hill Capital, and its Australian Broker, 708 Capital, of 72,000,000 new ordinary shares at 4 pence (A$0.08) per share to raise £2.88 million (A$5.76m) before expenses.
Proceeds from the raise and existing cash resources will principally be used to fund the upcoming drilling and potential appraisal activities in the Philippines, where the Company has a 15% interest in Block SC55 in the southwest Palawan Basin.
SC55 is a deep-water block in the middle of a proven regional oil and gas fairway that extends from the productive offshore Borneo region in the southwest to the offshore Philippine production assets northwest of Palawan. The first prospect, Hawkeye-1, was identified on 2D seismic in 2007 and further defined with a 600km2 3D seismic acquisition in late 2009.
Hawkeye-1 is assessed by the Otto Energy Limited, the Operator of Block, to contain a ‘Best Estimate’ STOIIP of ~480 MMbbls of oil and a ‘Best Estimate’ Gross Prospective Resource of 112 MMbbls (RMP net 14.3 MMbbls). Otto has already secured the Maersk Venturer drill ship to drill the Hawkeye-1 prospect and the Company anticipates a spud date towards the end of July 2015. The well is expected to take less than a month to drill.
Outside of its existing operations in the Philippines, Red Emperor has said it also continues to review numerous additional exploration opportunities. “This financing will further compliment Red Emperor’s existing cash resources of circa £6 million and enable the Company to move forward quickly should a suitable opportunity arise,” the company said in a statement.