Petratherm not successful in securing funding for Paralana project
Paralana 2 Well Injectivity Test in January 2011 showing some hydraulic pumps (left) and Coil Tubing Unit (right) (source: Petratherm, June 2011)
Francisco Rojas
22 Jul 2014
Petratherm informs that by falling short of $5 million and after several rounds of financing and extensions, they will shelve the Paralana Geothermal project in Australia.
Despite having reached $24.5 million for the Paralana Geothermal Project as a Renewable Energy Development Program grant, Petratherm has announced via the following press release that it will not carry onwards with said project.
“Petratherm advises that, despite a seven month time extension, the Company has been unable to secure the additional $5 million in equity required to draw down on the $13 million Emerging Renewables Program (ERP) Grant awarded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
Accordingly, ARENA has advised that no further time extensions will be made to source these funds and the ERP grant will be terminated with no funds having been paid to Petratherm.
As a consequence of the ERP grant lapse, the Company’s $24.5million Renewable Energy Development Program (REDP) grant conditions cannot be met. The REDP grant was designed to assist funding of up to 7MW geothermal power plant at Paralana, and was subject to a successful completion of the ERP.
A formal termination of both grants will be executed shorty with ARENA.
The ERP grant award was subject to two key contractual requirements; Beach Energy commits to fund its 21% equity share of the matching funding project costs, which was attained and that; Petratherm secures an additional $5 million in equity (market and/or JV partner(s)).
ASX Release 21 July 2014
ASX Code: PTR
Petratherm’s Managing Director, Terry Kallis, stated;
“This is disappointing for the Company and its shareholders given the technical success the Paralana Project has achieved. Despite our best efforts in Australia and internationally we have been unable to raise the necessary funds to satisfy the ERP grant conditions. However, this is reflective of the difficulty in raising monies in the equity markets for small exploration and development companies. As outlined in our earlier announcements, the Company will continue to investigate new investment opportunities that will reward shareholders.”
Source: Petratherm Asutralia Website
