Aker Energy is pursuing a stocklisting or other transaction to attract new investors as it seeks to raise capital to bankroll the upcoming development of its Deepwater Tano-Cape Three Points block off Ghana.

The Norwegian operator, backed by Oslo-listed holding company Aker, intends to file a development plan with the Accra government by the end of next month, having firmed up resources in the block with its successful Pecan-4A appraisal well.

Aker chief executive Oyvind Eriksen said in the company’s fourth-quarter report “the plan is to invite other investors to participate through an initial public offering or another transaction” once the development plan is approved by the Ghanaian authorities.

Aker Energy is presently a 50:50 joint venture between the holding company and TRG, the privately-owned investment vehicle of Aker’s chairman and billionaire backer Kjell Inge Rokke.

The operator has struck an option agreement with affiliate Ocean Yield for the bareboat charter of the Dhirubhai-1 floating production, storage and offloading vessel, which would be upgraded for use on an early oil production scheme in the block.

Aker Energy said it has verified gross contingent resources of between 450 million and 550 million barrels of oil equivalent at seven discoveries in the block following the Pecan-4A probe.

Two more appraisal wells are set to be drilled using drillship Maersk Viking at the Pecan South and Pecan South East targets after permits were granted for the wells.

Aker Energy chief executive Jan Arve Haugan has said further appraisal work could boost total volumes to be included in the development plan to between 600 million and 1 billion boe.

The company last year acquired a 50% operating stake in the block from Hess, which had previously been planning to develop four of the discoveries using an FPSO installed at the Pecan find.

Eriksen has previously stated that Aker Energy had been in initial talks with other oil companies active in the region with a view to getting its hands on the neighbouring South Deepwater Tano block, in which TRG has an indirect interest through its stake in Petrica Holding, to boost the resource base for a possible combined development.

These had focused on “a potential collaboration, co-investments in the blocks or different corporate transactions”.

The upcoming fund-raising exercise forms part of Rokke’s expansionist ambitions for Aker Energy as he targets total daily production from Aker-owned oil companies of over 1 million barrels by 2025, with further growth expected to come both organically and through merger-and-acquisition activity.

Domestic player Aker BP aims to triple its current output of around 156,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from the Norwegian continental shelf - and Rokke believes the international operations of Aker Energy could deliver an equivalent volume. However, parent Aker saw a steep drop in the value of its 40% shareholding in Aker BP in the fourth quarter as the latter’s share price was hit by lower oil prices and capital market volatility.

The total value of its industrial holdings — also including stakes in contractors Aker Solutions, Kvaerner and Akastor — fell by Nkr21.5 billion ($2.5 billion) to Nkr45.6 billion in the fourth quarter from the end of the third quarter, of which Aker BP accounted for Nkr18 billion of the decrease.

Aker’s year-end net asset value excluding debt of Nkr41.7 billion, albeit down from Nkr63.3 billion in the previous quarter, remained flat in relation to the end of 2017.

Furthermore, the holding company generated a record Nkr2.2 billion in cash last year from its upstream investments, compared with Nkr1.6 billion in 2017.

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Aker Energy set to raise funds for Ghana project