CALGARY — Chinook Energy Inc. (TSX:CKE) announced a deal Wednesday with New Zealand Oil & Gas Ltd. to develop its Cosmos concession in offshore Tunisia.
Terms of the deal call for NZOG to pay US$3 million up front and the first US$19 million of Chinook’s development costs in order to earn a 40 per cent working interest in the project.
Chinook retains operatorship and a 40 per cent working interest, while the Tunisian national oil company, Enterprise Tunisienne d’Activities Petrolieres, holds the remaining 20 per cent.
“It is a strong vote of confidence in both Tunisia and the Cosmos concession to have NZOG as our new partner” president and CEO Matt Brister said in a release.
“NZOG, as an experienced offshore player in New Zealand and existing operator in the Tunisian offshore, will add value to the project as we collectively move Cosmos forward in 2012.”
The Cosmos concession covers 440 square kilometres some 50 kilometres off the coast of Tunisia in the Gulf of Hammamet in an average water depth of 120 metres.
Chinook is a Calgary-based oil and natural gas exploration and development company with assets in Western Canada as well as offshore Tunisia.
On the Toronto Stock Exchange, Chinook Energy shares were down a penny at $1.31 Wednesday afternoon.