Inpex and ENI selling oil fields to Finder Energy

Japan’s Inpex and Italy’s ENI are set to sell four oil fields in the Timor Sea to a South Perth-based energy junior. Finder Energy will buy 76 per cent of the projects off Australia’s northern coast, with Timor-Leste’s national oil company Timor GAP to hold the remainder. The Kuda Tasia and Jahal fields hold about 22 million barrels of oil as contingent resources, markets were told on Thursday morning. ASX-listed Finder wants to raise $6m through a rights issue to fund the deal, at an 18.6 per cent discount to Tuesday’s closing price. Shareholder Longreach Capital Investment has pledged to chip in $3.2m. The company will pay the two big foreign-owned energy producers $US2 million ($3.1m) upfront and a further $US6.5m if a final investment decision is reached. The fields will likely be developed using a floating offshore production vessel, and with three wells to be drilled. Finder — which had a market capitalisation on Wednesday of $9.3m — wants to head into front end engineering and design by the end of next year. The business is chaired by Bronwyn Barnes, who has previously been a director of Perth Racing and Synergy. Shares in Finder were down 6.8 per cent to 5.5 cents each at the time of writing. The two fields have been through a few owners. Santos sold its stake in Jahal and Kuda Tasi to Britain’s Paladin Resources in 2005. Woodside Energy had once considered the fields to feed in to the Northern Endeavour FPSO. That vessel was later bought by Northern Oil and Gas Australia, which collapsed and left taxpayers with the decommissioning bill.