Park Place Victorious in Court

Park Place Energy has retained its Vranino 1-11 licence in Bulgaria after the country's Supreme Administrative Court ruled in its favour and upheld the awarding of the licence.

The company says a rival bidder for the licence appealed the award to Park Place following a bidding process which saw the Vranino 1-11 licence go to Park Place in October 2010. However, the competitor launched an appeal against the decision which was heard in the Supreme Administrative Court.

Park Place says that, following the ruling, it is looking forward to developing the resource, which lies in the Dobrich Basin in Bulgaria, a highly prospective basin for gas especially in coal and sands. The company believes that the basin could be very positive, "given the high prices, limited supply and strong regional market demand."

"With this positive ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court, Park Place will have the opportunity to realize on the potential of the basin resources," Park Place Director Parvez Tyab said in a statement. "We are very excited about moving this project forward."

The unnamed rival bidder has 14 days in which to appeal the Supreme Administrative Court's ruling though Park Place does not know whether the rival intends to do so.