Pan Pacific Petroleum told the ASX and NZX last Friday afternoon that its latest rights issue had closed oversubscribed.

Company secretary Kim Ware said applications for the 1:2 rights totalled 100,928,357 shares, with a further 51,382,219 additional shares being applied for. Due to the oversubscription of the offer, the underwriting facility was not required and directors had scaled back a limited number of the applications for additional shares.

Trading of the new securities should have started on the NZX yesterday and was scheduled to start on the ASX tomorrow.

Sydney-based Pan Pacific also said it had entered a finance facility agreement with a major resources bank to support the company's financial obligations under the Tui Area development’s FPSO vessel charter contract.

Last month the Tui Area partners agreed to immediately develop the Tui, Amokura and Pateke fields at an estimated cost of US$204 million, with first oil, of up to 50,000 barrels per day, flowing from mid-2007. They also plan exploration drilling into two nearby prospects, probably Taranui and Tieke.

Pan Pacific’s other offshore Taranaki interest is in licence PEP 38483 where operator Australia Worldwide Exploration plans to drill the Hector-1 well within the next year or so.

The PEP 38460 (Tui Area) partners are: operator Transworld (via New Zealand Overseas Petroleum (45%), NZOG (via Stewart Petroleum) (12.5%), AWE New Zealand (20%), Mitsui E&P New Zealand Limited (12.5%), Pan Pacific Petroleum (via WM Petroleum) (10%).

The PEP 38483 partners are: operator AWE NZ (44.317%), New Zealand Oil & Gas (via Stewart Petroleum) (18.864%), Mitsui E&P NZ (22.728%), and WM Petroleum (Pan Pacific Petroleum) (14.091%).