The Perth-based company bought the stake back in August 2005 for $800,000, at the time describing the purchase as a significant step in the growth of its international asset portfolio.
However in a statement this morning, Cooper said the sale of its holding in Block B, which would immediately add about $A1.3 million in extra funds, would allow the company to quickly secure any new venture opportunities in its focus areas of Australia, South-East Asia or North Africa.
“Cooper Energy continually reviews all blocks and permits in its portfolio and, to maximise value for our shareholders, is willing to divest where a fit to our values, expenditure expectations, prospectivity expectations, growth aspirations and/or focus areas is lacking,” chief executive Michael Scott said.
Cooper’s interest in Block B is held by CE Cambodia, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands. The other joint venture partners, which have agreed to buy Cooper’s 10% stake, are SPC Cambodia from Singapore, PTTEP from Thailand and Resourceful Petroleum from Malaysia.
Under the terms of the sale, the JV partners will immediately pay Cooper $US1 million. They will then be required to pay further staggered amounts if a discovery is made on the block and again when production exceeds 100 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Block B covers 6551 square kilometres and overlays the southeastern extension of the Khmer Basin, a proven petroleum system in the Gulf of Thailand that was a sub-basin of the prolific Malay-Thai Basin, which produced the bulk of Thailand’s hydrocarbons.
