Coal seam methane producer Eastern Star Gas is moving to spin-off its subsidiary, Orion Petroleum, a conventional gas and oil explorer, while Lakes Oil and Victoria Petroleum are seeking to float Greenearth Energy, a Victoria-focused geothermal explorer.
Orion lodged a prospectus with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission yesterday and is seeking to raise $20 million by issuing 100 million shares at $0.20 per share.
The offer will also have provision to accept oversubscriptions of up to 15 million shares to raise an additional $3 million.
For each share allotted under the offer, Orion will grant, for no additional consideration, one option exercisable at $0.30 per share on or before September 30, 2010.
The offer is underwritten by Commonwealth Securities Limited and Patersons Securities Limited to the amount of $20 million.
Orion has provided for a priority allocation of 15 million shares to shareholders of ESG with a registered address in Australia and who are on the register on November 13.
Last month, Eastern Star conditionally transferred to Orion NSW exploration permits PEL 6, 8, 422, 424 and 455, as well as rights to earn interests in PEL 427 and PEL 428 and petroleum exploration licence application (PELA) 73.
Eastern Star’s 35.75 million shares in Orion will represent 25.5% of the issued capital of Orion if the offer closes at $20 million or 23.1% if it closes at $23 million.
Meanwhile, Victoria Petroleum and Lakes Oil are pushing an IPO that offers $15 million of ordinary shares in Greenearth Energy with the right to accept oversubscriptions for a further $5 million ordinary shares, and with a minimum raising of $10 million.
Ordinary shares worth $8 million in Greenearth Energy will be made available in priority for applications from holders of ordinary shares in Victoria Petroleum and Lakes Oil as at the close of trading on November 12 on a non-specific entitlement basis.
VicPet and Lakes joined with private investors to create Greenearth with the intention of exploring and exploiting geothermal resources close to major markets and near electricity infrastructure.
Greenearth applied for and was awarded three permits to explore for geothermal energy in Victoria.
Two of these blocks are in the Latrobe Valley-Gippsland power-generating region, while the third covers Geelong and western metropolitan Melbourne, according to VicPet.
“Since the time the permits were awarded, some $1.8 million of expenditure has taken place for the gathering of heat information across the permits including information from several of Lakes Oil’s existing wells and participation in the recently drilled Hazelwood-1 and Boola Boola-2 wells,” VicPet said.
