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Rampart Energy (ASX:RTD) wins over $2bn Soul Pattinson Fund
- Published July 24, 2013 4:15PM UTC
- Publisher Wholesale Investor
- Categories Company Updates
The venerable investment firm Washington H. Soul Pattinson has spoken publicly of its mandate to expand its oil and gas portfolio and one of the stocks it has chosen is tiddler Rampart Energy.
Soul Patts is expected to turn up shortly as a substantial shareholders in Rampart after taking part in a $1.8 million capital raising to help fund a move to buy into acreage on the North Slope of Alaska owned by NASDAQ-Listed Royal Energy.
The area that Rampart is farming into is south of the main oil fields on the North Slope, which include one of the biggest in the US, Prudhoe Bay. The company is not only hopeful of tapping conventional oil on these blocks, but also see great potential for shale oil.
Rampart managing director Torey Marshall says the US geological survey ranks the North Slope shale system as second best in the country behind the Bakken.
Private company Great Bear Petroleum, which is backed by the US fund, Halliburton and Repsol are the other players targeting shale-based oil along the fairway structure to the south of the North Slope oilfields.
While the prospectivity of the ground is unquestioned, an added benefit of operating is the generous tax concessions on exploration.
Since Rampart announced the farm-in deal with Royale at the start of June, the Alaskan government has improved the tax incentives for oil and gas exploration in the state.
Before, anyone exploring in Alaska was getting US40c back for every $US1 invested. Under the new rebate that comes into effect next year, they will get US85c back for every $US1.
Source: Australian Financial Review.