Oilex Announces Plans to Raise $23 Million to Fund India Operations

Oilex announced late Tuesday a two tranche placement and underwritten rights issue to raise $23 million dollars, which will be used to fund operations at India’s Cambay and Bhandut fields.

The company’s first tranche placement aims to raise $1.4 million and the second tranche placement will aim to secure $16.3 million from investors. The remaining $5.3 million will be raised from the company’s rights issue, which has been fully underwritten. Oilex has proposed that the majority of the money raised ($16.9 million) will be used for the completion of the company’s 2015/2016 work program for the Cambay field, which includes a two well drilling campaign, and the Bhandut field. A work program for Australia’s Canning Basin will take up $1.3 million, with working capital and capital raising fees taking up the remaining $4.8 million.

Located in the Cambay Basin, the Cambay field has estimated 2P reserves of 20 million barrels of oil equivalent and estimated 2C unrisked resources of 80 MMboe, according to Oilex’s website. The Bhandut field is situated near India’s Lakshmi, Gauri and Hazira fields in India and has an estimated contingent resource of 100 million cubic feet and Australia’s Canning Basin has risked technically recoverable resources of 235 trillion cubic feet of recoverable shale gas and 9.8 billion barrels of recoverable shale oil/condensate, according to an Energy Information Administration report.

Oilex Managing Director Ron Miller commented in a company statement:  

"We are very pleased with the strong support for the placement and welcome a number of new institutional and sophisticated investors to the company. Successful delivery of the Cambay field 2015/16 work program will be a transformational event for Oilex and India. These wells will continue to demonstrate the potential of the Cambay Basin to deliver indigenous natural gas and oil to India’s fast growing economy by using horizontal wells and multistage fracture stimulation technology. For Oilex, it means increased production and cash flow to build a strong foundation for future growth in shareholder value and returns."