Clontarf Energy (LON:CLON) , an oil and gas exploration and development company, was re-admitted to the AIM market this morning and raised £2.7m in a share placing priced at 6p per share. Clontarf is the result of a series of deals overseen in recent months by its chairman John Teeling, the well-known resources entrepreneur.

The move started last summer when Teeling announced that his ailing Iran-focused gold exploration venture Persian Gold plc, was set to buy Hydrocarbon Exploration plc in an all-share deal worth £4.3m. HyEx, was an unquoted outfit that was spun out of another Teeling business, Pan Andean Resources just ahead of its acquisition by Canadian oil group Petrominerales (TSX:PMG) early in 2010. HyEx was left with gas production and exploration projects in Bolivia and the Gulf of Mexico. As a result, Clontarf now runs the Bolivian operation as well as projects in Ghana, Peru and the US, although the US project in the Gulf of Mexico is in dispute.

During the course of the acquisition process, the operations of both companies have continued. Having struggled to get traction in Iran, Persian Gold had latterly acquired an oil and gas exploration holding in Ghana which, with all these deals now wrapped up, stands at 60% of the Tano 2A onshore/offshore licence. That 1,532 sq km2 block lies close to four recent discoveries by Tullow Oil (LON:TLW) and Kosmos. Of note, HyEx’s concession has been signed by the authorities but has not yet been ratified by the cabinet and parliament. Nevertheless, Clontarf staff have reprocessed all existing geological, seismic and drill log data and have identified eight possible targets and leads.

In Peru the official signing ceremony for the award of the two onshore oil exploration blocks is expected to take place after Easter. Preliminary reprocessing of existing data is underway. In Bolivia, the El Dorado gas project continues to grow in importance. Production from existing wells is growing and new wells are planned for late 2011. Significantly, the project has been awarded the rights to obtain the Bolivian export price of $5.50 per 1 million British Thermal Units (BTU). Clontarf is paying $600K to copper fasten a 10% interest in this project. The operator and 90% holder is Chaco-YPFB, the Bolivian state oil company.

David Horgan, the managing…

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