ShaMaran Acquires Interest in Kurdistan

Kurdistan-focused ShaMaran Petroleum said today it has entered into an agreement to acquire one third of General Exploration Partners (GEP), a wholly owned subsidiary of Aspect, with interests in Kurdistan. GEP is operator and has an 80% stake in a production sharing agreement for the Atrush block in Kurdistan, with the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq (KRG) holding the remaining 20%.

The deal will see ShaMaran pay an initial cash payment of US$24.1 million, 12.5 million of shares in ShaMaran and a future obligation to contribute the next US$15.9 million in cash required to fund operations, for a 33.5% stake in GEP. After the US$15.9 million contribution, each of the shareholders of GEP will fund operations pro-rata according to their participating interest. The Atrush Block is located north of the Shaikan discovery announced by Gulf Keystone Petroleum in January. “2D seismic data over the Atrush Block indicates that the structure is similar to the Shaikan structure,” said ShaMaran in a statement. The Atrush Block is also adjacent to and on trend with the recent Bijeel oil discovery to the east, operated by Kalegran (MOL). “The Atrush 1 exploration well location has been approved and the well is expected to spud in September,” said ShaMaran.- Upstream