Trans-Asia Petroleum to raise P500M from special rights offer

MANILA, Philippines–Trans-Asia Petroleum Corp. targets to raise as much as P500 million from the conduct of a special rights offering between the fourth quarter of this year to the first quarter of 2015, following its debut at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) on Thursday.

Trans-Asia Petroleum, a subsidiary of publicly listed firm Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp., had formally listed at the local bourse by way of introduction on Thursday.

In a briefing, Trans-Asia Petroleum CFO Pythagoras L. Brion Jr. explained that proceeds from this fund raising activity will be used to finance the company’s engagements, specifically with Service Contracts 50 in offshore northwest Palawan, and SC52 in Cagayan Valley.

The consortia (which includes Trans-Asia Petroleum) separately involved in these two service contracts are expected to develop these prospective oil and gas sites as soon as possible. For SC52, there are plans to try to flow the well by the second quarter of 2015, while for SC50, Trans-Asia Petroleum expects to sign by next month definitive agreements for the acquisition of a 10 percent stake in the said petroleum service contract.

It was only recently that Trans-Asia Petroleum signed an agreement with Frontier Energy Ltd. and parent firm Frontier Oil Corp.to acquire a 10-percent participating interest in SC50, which covers prospective oil and gas blocks off northwest Palawan, including the proven Calauit oil fields.

SC50 lies in the country’s most prospective oil and gas basin off northwest Palawan, which hosted the Calauit Field that was discovered in 1991 by Petrocorp Exploration Philippines Ltd. The Calauit Oilfield, which covers 1,280 sq. km., is reported to be a proven resource planned for development, containing two oilfields tested by the Calauit-1B well and the Calauit South-1/1A wells. Potential reserves at SC50 were estimated at about 12.9 million barrels with net present value appraised at $92.8 million, a document from Frontier Oil showed.

Prior to the listing, parent firm Trans-Asia Oil had transferred a portion of its ownership in Trans-Asia Petroleum to its shareholders through property dividend distribution. This transaction involved 123 million shares, of which 2.55 shares were given to each Trans-Asia Oil stockholder who owned at least 100 shares.–Amy R. Remo