UK-Listed Cabot Energy Exits Oz

UK-listed Cabot Energy announced April 9 that it has relinquished an onshore exploration licence in South Australia to focus on core assets in Canada and Italy.

Ouro Preto Resources, Cabot's wholly-owned subsidiary, has reached an agreement with the department for energy and mining (DEM) of the government of South Australia to relinquish its PEL 629 onshore exploration licence in the Otway Basin.

"The formal application for variation and relinquishment of the licence has been submitted and the relinquishment is expected to take immediate effect,” Cabot said.

The company added that DEM has confirmed that it will grant permission to change its commitments "for a nominal fee". Cabot will not incur any further costs or penalties associated with the outstanding work programme.

The licence had been in suspension since June 2014 to allow the company to carry out further technical work and evaluation. At the end of last year, the net book value was zero, with the majority of the asset impairment (US$970,000) booked in 2015, Cabot added.