Gulf Keystone draws down cash for Shaikan-1

12th Oct 2009 14:23

Kurdistan-focused oil explorer Gulf Keystone Petroleum has drawn down a further £4.5m from its £30m Standby Equity Distribution Agreement (SEDA). This latest share issue is at 89.72p a share and the cash will be spent on projects in Kurdistan. The SEDA is provided by YA Global Master SPV Ltd and there is still £23.1m available for draw down. Gulf Keystone agreed the SEDA in May 2009 and initially drew down £800,000 at 15.39p a share, followed by a further £1.6m at 14.61p a share in June. These shares are now worth £15.9m at the current share price of 98.5p - although it is not certain whether YA still owns them all. At the beginning of August, Gulf Keystone raised £6.8m from a placing at 9p a share. The share price started to take off later in August after the first news from the Shaikan-1 exploration well in Kurdistan started to flow through. Since then further updates have increased the size of the estimated resource. The resource is currently estimated at between 2bn and 4bn barrels of oil. The Shaikan-1 well is a part of a 50/50 joint venture between Gulf Keystone and private Middle East-based ETAMIC.