NORTH Sea-focused Independent Oil & Gas has said it has made good progress in its efforts to secure funding for a flagship field development after snubbing a takeover approach in March.
Independent’s board said the £26m takeover proposal made in that month by acquisitive RockRose Energy undervalued the business.
Read more: North Sea oil firm in spat with takeover target
RockRose expressed doubts about Independent’s ability to secure the funds needed for its plan to develop a cluster of gas fields in the Southern North Sea on attractive terms.
However, Independent said yesterday that efforts to attract a firm to invest in its acreage through a farm-out process had progressed substantially.
It said the farm-out was intended to provide a significant amount of development funding and would represent a major milestone towards the firm making a Final Investment Decision (FID) to proceed with the planned development.
Read more: Disused pipeline could help revive swathe of North Sea reckons oil and gas firm
The company said it aimed to be in a position to release further updates in July.
Chief executive Andrew Hockey said: “We are highly motivated to deliver a farm-out transaction that can enable us to progress to FID this summer.”
Independent faced potential complications amid the fallout from the collapse of the London Capital & Finance (LCF) investment business, which raised £236m from small investors.
Independent had used debt provided by a firm which went into administration in March and had been funded by London & Capital Finance.
Aim market-listed Independent went on to raise £19 million from investors.
In March the Serious Fraud Office opened an investigation into LCF and four individuals associated with it.
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