Business
Sale of US Business
Sale of US Business.
About this update from Afentra Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n Sterling Energy PLC\n07 April 2008\n\n THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, DIRECTLY OR\n INDIRECTLY, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN, INTO OR FROM THE UNITED STATES, JAPAN,\n CANADA OR AUSTRALIA.\n\n\n\n\n07 April 2008\n\n STERLING ENERGY PLC\n ('Sterling' or 'the Company')\n\n\n PROPOSED SALE OF U.S. BUSINESS\n\n\n\nSterling Energy (AIM: SEY), an independent oil & gas exploration and production\ncompany with interests in North America, Africa and the Middle East, today\nannounces that it has retained BMO Capital Markets to manage a sales process for\nits U.S. oil & gas exploration and production business (the 'U.S. business').\n\n\nThe Board of Sterling has recently undertaken a comprehensive strategic review\nof the Company's assets and prospects and has concluded that it would be in\nshareholders' best interests to sell the U.S. business. The Board believes that\nthe U.S. business has grown to a size that makes it attractive to prospective\nbuyers. The Board has therefore mandated BMO Capital Markets to manage the\nsales process.\n\n\nThe Board expects that the proceeds of any sale will enable it to repay the\nCompany's borrowings and leave it with significant net cash. This, together with\ncash revenues from its Mauritanian producing interests, will provide funding to\nincrease the Company's investment in the very considerable upside potential of\nits key assets in Africa and the Middle East.\n\n\nSterling will focus on an increasing number of higher impact exploration\nprospects, which currently include Madagascar, Kurdistan, Gabon, AGC (a joint\nexploration zone between Senegal and Guinea Bissau) and Cameroon. It will also\npursue new opportunities including potential acquisitions.\n\n\nStudies by an independent consultancy, RISC, covering two of the Company's\nprospects in Kurdistan and offshore Madagascar, were recently completed. These\nindicated unrisked best estimate net prospective resources of over 500 million\nbarrels of oil with a high net estimate of over 1,900 million barrels of oil for\nSterling's current interests on those two prospects.\n\n\n\nSterling will update shareholders further in due course.\n\n\n\nBackground to U.S. Business\n\nSterling's U.S. operations include a substantial inventory of low-risk\ndevelopment and exploration projects, primarily in the onshore Gulf C...