Tap Oil bides its time on gas salesTap Oil may have gone quiet...

Tap Oil bides its time on gas sales
Tap Oil may have gone quiet on the sale of its stakes in the Zola and Tallaganda gas fields in the Carnarvon Basin but there’s plenty happening behind the scenes.

The junior is thought to be sitting on a verbal offer of about $50 million for its interests in the WA-290-P and WA-351-P permits, which are well located for LNG.

But since there’s no need for a quick sale it is hanging out for Tallaganda operator BHP to wrap up its study of commercial viability, with the view that this will lead to a higher offer.

Several companies have signed confidentiality agreements and at least one has had access to a data room, but a deal is still about six months off.

Tap originally looked at selling its 10?per cent interest in the circa 2.6?trillion cubic feet Zola field earlier this year, but packaging up the asset with its more meaty 20 per cent stake in Tallaganda would widen the field of interest. Both permits enjoy excellent addresses, being close to both Gorgon and Hess’s fields.

Selling both together could also circumvent any pre-emption by Tap’s partners in the permits, which include Apache, OMV, Santos and Nippon Oil.

Tap has pulled off a couple of good deals recently. There was the purchase and profitable resale of an interest in WA-351-P, plus yesterday’s coup of a farm-out of its Ghana exploration venture to experienced AIM-listed African player Ophir Energy, setting it up to drill the half billion barrel Starfish target.