Rift has a memorandum of understanding agreement with Rio Tinto for investigating the supply of around 40 billion cubic feet of gas per annum from the Douglas gas discovery in PNG through a direct pipeline to its energy-hungry Alcan Gove alumina refinery in the Northern Territory.
However, with PNG LNG entering front-end engineering design for its LNG plant near Port Moresby there is a possibility gas from the Douglas fields could find a buyer closer to home.
Rift said it is in discussions with a company regarding an LNG off-take agreement for the delivery of gas.
Rift non-executive chairman Ian Gowrie-Smith said opportunities include the conversion of gas to LNG by vessels possibly in association with regional gas gathering.
The TimesOnline reported Rift as having attracted interest from a big player in the LNG market, which, in return for a cut of the project, is prepared to provide a ship that can take the gas off the coast and convert into LNG for transport anywhere in the world.
ExxonMobil, the operator and major 41.6% stakeholder of the PNG LNG project, helped lead development in the next generation of LNG carriers - the Q-Flex and Q-Max - with these vessels carrying small-scale gas liquefaction technology on board.
With the prospect of a new competitor for its Douglas gas, Rift could receive a higher price than previously expected with its Alcan arrangement.
Of the new share placement at a price of 5.25 pence, Rift said they were placed by broker RBC Capital Markets with institutional clients and high net worth individuals, while the TimesOnline reported conjecture that one of the institutional shareholders is Royal Bank of Canada.
Gowrie-Smith and Rift finance director David Lees will also participate in the share placement through their own family settlement companies Thornaby and Ocarina Investments respectively, with each company subscribing for 2.86 million shares at the placing price.
The completed transaction will put Smith's associated Thornaby company holding at 9.88% of Rift's issued share capital while Lee's associated Ocarina will have 7.69%.
Warrants for a further 4.35 million new ordinary shares subscription will be made following the share placement, with the warrants exercisable at the placing price at any stage in the 12-24 months following the completion of the share placement with dealings expected to take place on June 10.
After the share placement, which has been admitted to trading on the Alternative Investment Market exchange, Rift should have a total of 795.84 trillion shares on issue.
Meanwhile, drilling at Puk Puk-1 on PPL 235 reached 900m of the total planned depth of 2100m, with the target at 2000m.
Puk Puk-1 in PPL 235 is targeting estimated recoverable reserves of about 226 billion cubic feet of gas and is targeting a separate structure 25km from Rift's Douglas gas discovery.
PPL 235, which includes the Douglas gas field that was discovered in 2006, has estimated reserves of about 798Bcf.
