Legendary Investments pleased with progress at Dunraven

Legendary Investments updated the market on progress at Circle Oil Tunisia (COTL) on Wednesday, having converted its stake in its Kyrgyz gold asset to shares in COTL in late December, following which COTL was acquired by Dunraven Resources in a share swap.

The AIM-traded firm said that resulted in it having a 2.0% stake in Dunraven.

COTL was now a 100%-owned subsidiary of Dunraven, which holds the Mahdia Permit in the Gulf of Hammamet, offshore Tunisia.

Legendary described Dunraven as an exploration and production company initially focussing on North Africa and the Middle East.

The management team was headed by Alex MacDonald, who had more than three decades of oil and gas business and City experience.

He previously founded and brought companies to AIM, and held senior positions in Whitman-Howard’s oil and gas team and Libertas Capital Corporate Finance.

Legendary said he also had experience with oil majors including Conoco and Chevron Corporation.

Dunraven's board and executive team had a “strong background” in exploration and production, and strong reputations and relationships with major oil companies and governments at senior levels, it added.

It said Dunraven's strategy was to participate in exploration and production projects, with Tunisia the initial focus of Dunraven's activities, where it enjoyed established, strategic relationships.

COTL held and remained the operator of the El Mediouni East and Central oil asset (ELM) in the Mahdia Permit .

As announced by Legendary in December, ELM's previous owner, Circle Oil, invested heavily in ELM, and in August 2014 announced a potential large discovery following preliminary results from the EMD 1 well drilled by COTL which gave evidence of a working petroleum system and traces of hydrocarbons.

Internal results were estimated by Circle Oil as potentially recoverable prospective resources of approximately 100 million barrels of oil.

Dunraven had already developed an “ambitious” 18 month work programme for ELM, including a drilling programme.

Legendary saud Dunraven was also in negotiations with “a major services company” to be their technical partner.

Additionally, COTL intended to acquire a “significant” amount of new seismic over the licence area; the tendering for which was expected to be completed by the end of 2018.

COTL had now opened an office in Tunis and appointed a country manager - who previously worked for COTL - and an office manager.

Moreover, Dunraven was reportedly actively pursuing a pre-qualified portfolio of acquisition opportunities in the region.

“Dunraven Resources is an Irish registered company and is funded by private equity,” said Dunraven CEO Alexander MacDonald.

“The company is at an early stage in its development, but in the past six months has made significant progress towards achieving its work programme commitments, as well as establishing a pipeline of additional acquisition opportunities.”

MacDonald said the Mahdia work programme was , over the next 18 months, an “interesting and challenging” opportunity for Dunraven.

“In support of Dunraven's management, is an accomplished and experienced group of advisors, who are also part of the team and and are committed to achieving success.”

Zafar Karim, executive chairman of Legendary Investments, added that the company was “pleased” with the rapid progress being made at Dunraven.

“Along with the appointment of Alex MacDonald and an experienced and well-regarded core team and advisors, work plans and acquisition plans have been put in place and are underway,” Karim explained.

“We look forward to further updates.”