Israel Opportunity to increase its holdings to 16% of the licenses and Nammax to Increase its holdings to 60%
The oil and gas exploration Partnership “Israel Opportunity” announced today that it will increase its holdings in Pelagic licenses. The Partnership had reached an agreement with Eden Enegy Discoveries Ltd., which acquired control of Frendum from Teddy Sagi, a further 6% of the rights in the licenses held by Frendum will be transferred to the Partnership. 17.5% will be transferred to Benny Steinmetz’s Namaks. Upon completion of the transfer of rights Pelagic Licenses’ partners and holdings will be as follows: Israel Opportunity – 16%, Nammax Oil & Gas Limited – 60%, Frendum Investments Limited – 10%, Daden Investment Ltd. – 9% and AGR Petroleum Services Holdings AS – 5%. Transfer of rights shall take effect after receiving approvals from the Petroleum Commissioner.
The transfer of rights is made in light of the agreement between the various companies holding the licenses, whereby they hold first buying rights in case one of the partners wants to sell parts of its holdings, following a deal in which Eden acquired control of Frendum from Teddy Sagi.
“Israel Opportunity” currently holds a broad portfolio of offshore and onshore licenses: 25% of new license application called “Hatrurim” covering an area of about 70 square kilometers near the Dead Sea; 10% of the license “Oz” covering an area of about 400,000 acres, 50 km off the coast of Tel Avivת with potential for finding 2.5TCF of natural gas and 250 million barrels of oil; 16% of the exploration licenses “Pelagic” (after obtaining the approval for transfer of rights), including “Ishai” license that contains part of “Aphrodite” structure, located mostly in Block 12 of Cyprus; and 10% of two other offshore licenses, “Royee” and “Neta “, covering an area of about 800,000 hectares about 150 km west of Israel, with potential of 3.2TCF of natural gas.
“Israel Opportunity” CEO Eyal Shuker said, “Israel Opportunity’s risk diversification strategy has proved itself, and Israel Opportunity is consequently one of the few partnerships with a large cash reserve that enables it to expand its holdings in the licenses, at minimal cost. We believe that the potential of the reserves in our region is great, and that particularly today, with the sector suffering from negative momentum and underpricing, there is an opportunity to expand assets at low cost. We are long-term players, and act accordingly.”
