Looking up: Toreador is focusing on France
Toreador sticks with French play
Toreador Resources is refining its focus to concentrate solely on France's onshore play after selling off its Turkish and Hungarian operations in a deal worth a combined $16.4 million.
The Nasdaq-listed player said it had sold its Turkish unit to privatey-held Norwegian outfit Tiway Oil in a $10.6 million deal which is due to close on 7 October.
Austrian outfit RAG bought Toreador's Hungarian unit is a €4 million ($5.8 million) deal which closed on 29 September.
Toreador's chief executive Craig McKenzie said: "We expect that the proceeds of these transactions will enable us to continue repurchasing a portion of our convertible notes, and to continue delivering our corporate strategy to develop the low-risk conventional exploration of our French acreage and to plan our 'proof of concept' phase for the unconventional exploitation of the Paris basin oil shale.
"Specifically, we remain on track with the upcoming La Garenne exploration well planned for November 2009 and we are working toward partnering to develop the Paris basin oil shale.”