Explorer to sell half of Irish assets

ISLAND Oil & Gas, the Dublin-headquartered exploration company, is to sell half of its Irish-based assets in a bid to fund development work at its newer licences off the coast of Morocco, due to be carried out over the next two years.

The company said yesterday that it had decided the sale of its interests in the Celtic Sea was the best way for the firm to raise funds.

“The potential to raise organic capital through asset sales to reduce the dependency on external finance in the future is high. In this respect, the board believes that monetisation of the Celtic Sea gas assets offers the best and earliest opportunity to achieve this objective,” Island said in a stock exchange statement.