Tethys Petroleum rockets higher as big guns sign up at Bokhtar

Tethys Petroleum (LON:TPL TSE:TPL) shares rocketed higher as it brought in two of the world’s largest oil firms to develop its huge Bokhtar field in Tajikistan.

French giant Total and China’s CNODC will both take a third share in the project, while Tethys’s Tajik subsidiary Kulob Petroleum (KPL) will also receive US$60 mln for back costs.

David Robson, executive chairman and president of Tethys, described it as a “tremendous deal” for the company and would be extremely beneficial for Tajikistan.

“It rewards us for taking the first steps into Tajikistan in 2006 and validates our extensive technical work to date.

“Total and CNPC are world class companies and we look forward to working with our new partners in Tajikistan which in our view has world class potential.”

He added that Total and CNODC have the experience to explore and develop giant petroleum deposits, while the new pipelines carrying gas from Central Asia to China provide a potential export route for any sizeable gas discovery.

“This farm-out also provides significant additional funding for our company to accelerate our other current projects,” he said.

Kulob, which is 85% owned by Tethys, will be partially carried on a US$80 million initial work programme of further seismic data acquisition followed by a deep exploration well. The farm-out is subject to final Tajik governmental approvals and State consents.

The PSC (production sharing contract) will be operated by a joint operating company to be set up and owned by KPL, Total and CNODC, in proportion to their ownership in the PSC.

Independent assessors have put the size of the Bokhtar production sharing contract (PSC) resource at a gross unrisked mean recoverable prospective 27.5bn barrels of oil equivalent, consisting of 114 trillion cubic feet (3.22 trillion cubic metres) of gas and 8.5 billion barrels of oil.

Shares in Tethys jumped by more than 40% to 37p.

Story by ProactiveInvestors