Fastnet raises £10m in oversubscribed share placing

Fastnet, the Irish listed oil and gas company, has raised £10 million in a new share placement aimed at funding its drilling activities in Morocco next year.

The Dublin-based company said it placed 71.4 million new ordinary shares with new and existing investors at a price of 14 pence per share.

The proceeds will fund its ongoing participation in the Foum Assaka licence area in the Agadir Basin, off the Moroccan coast, until it completes a farm-out agreement, expected in the first quarter of 2014, the company said.

Fasnet, which holds prospecting licences in Morocco and off the south coast of Ireland, is expecting to farm-out a share of its interest in Foum Assaka in return for a contribution towards past costs incurred

“Fastnet has established a portfolio of over 25,000 square kilometres under licence in two emerging industry ‘hot spots’ in both offshore and onshore Morocco and offshore Ireland and I welcome the support from new and existing shareholders as we progress towards exploration drilling in Morocco in early 2014,” Fastnet managing director Paul Griffiths said.