10 September 2013, News Wires – Australian mining giant BHP Billiton has bought out the remaining interest in a block in the Orange basin of South Africa.
Colorado-based Global Energy Holdings said on Monday that it had agreed to sell its carried 10% stake in Block 3B/4B to BHP, which already operates the block with a 90% interest.
Global Energy did not disclose the terms of the deal but said appropriate governmental approvals were currently in process.
Block 3B/4B is understood to cover 28,839 square kilometres in waters ranging from 300 to 2500 meters deep. BHP had acquired its initial 90% stake in the block under a farm-in agreement signed with Global Energy in 2005.
Global Energy manager Randall C Thompson said the transaction validated his company’s business model of identifying and acquiring licences in offshore deep-water basins usually devoid of any significant exploration activity.
“Our company’s business plan is to take one deep-water deal at a time and give 100% of our human and financial resources to the project at hand,” Thompson said in a statement.
He also hinted at the possibility that a new venture in a new country was in the making, saying: “all this means that I’m now a landman without a lease”.
– Upstream