Austral Pacific Arranges
US$15m Financing
Austral Pacific Arranges US$15m Financing
Wellington, New Zealand - 19 December 2007 - Austral Pacific Energy Ltd.
(TSX-V: APX; NZSX: APX; AMEX: AEN)
Austral Pacific Energy Ltd. has signed agreements with a number of
accredited investors to privately place 12,500,000 common (ordinary) shares with
attached warrants, sold as units at $1.20 per unit. Each unit consists of one
common share and one share purchase warrant. The warrants are convertible
one-for-one into the Company's common shares for 12 months after closing at an
exercise price of $2.25.
Proceeds from the private placement will be used primarily in connection
with accelerating the Cheal field development with a
goal of increasing the field reserve base and increasing production through the
newly commissioned Cheal Production Station. The
proceeds will also fund other appraisal and development projects in Taranaki, New Zealand and PNG and will be used to both
progress the Cardiff field appraisal and to complete the cash portion of the
previously announced purchase of a further 19% interest in Cardiff.
The placement is subject to stock exchange approvals expected in the
ordinary course. A portion of the securities were placed in the United States
to accredited investors in reliance on Rule 506 and are subject to resale
restrictions in the United States under Rule 144 for a one year period but can
be traded under Rule 904 through the TSX Venture Exchange after 4 months which
is the basic hold period applicable to all the securities.
Management Comments
Thom Jewell, Austral's CEO commented "We
were pleased to see a strong level of interest in the company's current
projects and its inventory of high quality exploration, appraisal and
development opportunities. This financing brings us flexibility and allows us
to accelerate our onward program to enhance the value of our asset base. We
have also significantly extended the Company's base of shareholders as
approximately 63% of the shares were placed with investors newly introduced to
Austral Pacific."
Operations Update
Austral Pacific (69.5%WI and Operator) has recently announced the
successful tie back of the Cheal B site wells into the production facility
raising the production for the field to over 750 bopd. The next step in the
phased Cheal development is to drill and connect the planned two additional
wells, targeting a normalized field production of between 1000 and 1500 bopd
Austral Pacific has now successfully re-completed the Cardiff-2A ST-1
discovery well with the Parker Rig 252. The rig is scheduled to be released
from the site at the end of this week. Detailed testing operations for this
well are part of the ongoing field appraisal and development activities that
are scheduled for 1st quarter, 2008.
Cardiff lies 3 km
(1.8 miles)
from Cheal facilities in onshore Taranaki, New Zealand. It is 44.9% owned by
Austral, which is also field operator.
About Austral Pacific
Austral Pacific is a listed independent oil and gas exploration and
production company registered in Canada with corporate headquarters in
Wellington, New Zealand. The Company has an interest in thirteen exploration
and production permits totalling over 2.6 million acres in onshore New Zealand
and Papua New Guinea. The Company's primary assets are the Cheal Field, Kahili
Field and Cardiff Field located onshore in the highly prolific Taranaki Basin
on the North Island of New Zealand. In Papua New Guinea, the Company has an
interest in four onshore blocks.
Austral Pacific Energy (NZ) Limited
Web site: www.austral-pacific.com
Email: ir@austral-pacific.com Phone: Thom Jewell, CEO +64 (4) 495 0880 or
Brad Holmes: +1 (713) 304 6062
None of the Exchanges upon which Austral Pacific's securities trade have
approved or disapproved the contents hereof. This release includes certain
statements that may be deemed to be "forward-looking statements"
within the meaning of applicable legislation. Other than statements of
historical fact, all statements in this release addressing future production,
reserve potential, exploration and development activities and other
contingencies are forward-looking statements. Although management believes the
expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on
reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future
performance, and actual results or developments may differ materially from
those in the forward-looking statements, due to factors such as market prices,
exploration and development successes, continued availability of capital and
financing, and general economic, market, political or business conditions. Please
see our public filings at www.sedar.com and
www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/webusers.htm for further information.