PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The sale of oil and gas major Beach Energy’s Egyptian assets to Aim-listed Rockhopper Exploration has been blocked by one of the joint venture (JV) partners in the Abu Sennan concession.
In August, Beach announced it would focus on its Australian operation and divest of its international assets, which included a 22% interest in the Abu Sennan concession.
The completion of the transaction had been subject to a number of conditions precedent, including the waiver or nonexercise of preemptive rights held by existing JV parties over the Abu Sennan concession.
Following the August announcement, Beach received notice of the exercise of the preemptive right by one of the existing JV parties and, as a result, the conditions precedent to the Rockhopper transaction could not be satisfied.
The preemption period expires on October 16 and, at that time, the ultimate preempting party would be confirmed.
Completion of the sale of Beach’s interest in the Abu Sennan concession was subject to Egyptian government approval and Beach was likely to be paid $20.4-million in cash for its share in the project.