In a statement this morning, Eskdale Petroleum said it was moving to take over the outstanding shares in Orchard, having now received 90.47% of acceptances.

Yesterday afternoon, Nuenco told the market that while forming the new company, the JV had made substantial progress towards attracting “well-financed and experienced” oil and gas operators to help develop its acreage.

“These are exciting times as new players seek to review the acreage position and the inventory of prospects contained within the SJJV, with a view to participating in the drilling of these prospects,” Nuenco managing director Anthony Kain said.

“A stated objective of the SJJV is to offset the risk of drilling exploration wells on the joint venture’s prospects by attracting farm-in partners to carry the SJJV on the cost of exploration wells as has been done at Kreyenhagen.”

The SJJV was formed last October, to take over and build on the large chunk of San Joaquin Basin acreage Nuenco acquired several months before via its 50% acquisition of Canadian explorer Surf.

Each with a 25% interest, the SJJV stakeholders are Nuenco, NEG, SAPs and Maxin.

Also in the San Joaquin Basin, Nuenco partners with Orchard in the Jack Hamar gas field and the deeper Jack Hamar Monterey oil and gas field.

In total, Orchard is involved in nine projects covering more than 100,000 acres in the region. These projects also include the South Belridge, Forbes Gas, Southeast Lost Hills and Turk Anticline, along with an exploration JV involving five projects with Aera Energy, which is jointly owned by Shell and ExxonMobil.