Thai oil company extends takeover bid deadline again

Thai oil company PTT Exploration & Production yesterday extended for the third time the deadline for shareholders in London- and Dublin-based explorer Cove Energy to accept its $1.9bn (€1.5bn) takeover bid.

PTT has put its deadline out to Jul 25 as it has only received acceptances in respect of 1.23m of Cove’s shares, or 0.25% of its issued share capital.

Cove’s management — the company is headed up by John Craven, a founder of Dublin-headquartered oil and gas explorer Petroceltic — initially agreed to PTT’s offer in late May.

The Thai company’s latest move gives Shell — which previously bid $1.8bn for Cove — time to increase its offer, but Britain’s takeover authorities could open a daily auction process between the firms if revised offers aren’t lodged today.

Cove also noted that the disposal of its interests in Tanzania to locally-based Wentworth Resources has formally been completed.

Elsewhere, Dublin-based San Leon Energy said it had drilled the first of a two-well exploration programme in its Nowa Sol concession in Poland. San Leon chairman Oisin Fanning said the firm is starting to see two years of technical work and operation planning come to fruition.

“The Nowa Sol drilling programme is a very exciting development for us, with the possibility of generating near-term cash flow should we be successful. As a result of the sizeable acreage that we have accumulated in this region, any positive result is likely to have a significant impact.”

Tullow Oil has announced the abandonment of its Jaguar-1 well in Guyana, in South America.

Middle Eastern explorer Dragon Oil — which has its shares partially listed in Dublin — has secured rig equipment for its Tunisian appraisal project, with drilling set to commence in late 2012/early 2013.

The company also said it has moved closer to signing the final contract for a block in Iraq, which it will jointly own with Kuwait Energy and Turkish Petroleum Corp, Turkey’s national oil company.