Heritage Oil (LON:HOIL) is an independent oil and gas production and exploration company listed on the London Stock Exchange, with a secondary listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The Company's immediate focus is on its operations in Africa, the Middle East and Russia. Drake Lawhead from the Oil Coucil interviews Paul Atherton, CFO, Heritage Oil.
DL: With assets in Russia, Kurdistan, and Tanzania, Heritage is involved in some very intriguing plays. How did the decision to focus on these areas come into being?
PA: Heritage’s portfolio of international oil and gas assets has been based on a strategy of gaining a first mover advantage, supported by sound decision making and technical and operating expertise.
DL: You’re also involved in some very frontier plays – Mali, Pakistan, and Malta in particular. How important are these to your business, and what does it reveal about Heritage’s business strategy?
PA: First mover advantage is key. Malta and Mali demonstrate that we are a wild cat explorer whose portfolio includes high impact exploration targets which have the ability to transform the company and generate substantial value for our shareholders.
DL: What one line would best describe Heritgae to investors?
PA: We are a proven, successful, cash rich international, high impact exploration oil and gas company that moves quickly to invest and operate in certain of the more challenging locations in the world to maximise returns to shareholders
DL: In April last year you sold your Ugandan assets to Tullow for $1.45bn. Was the billion barrels of oil not enough to tempt you to develop or farm it out?
PA: Heritage has had remarkable operational success in Uganda as a result of technical excellence and first mover advantage. In 1997, Heritage became the first oil and gas company in almost 60 years to undertake exploration in Uganda after being awarded a licence in the Albert Basin of western Uganda. We believed that the sale of the interests was the right time to monetise our investment since we estimate that the development of the fields and related infrastructure will costs in excess of $12 billion, which is beyond our current capability.
DL: In January, you made Iraq’s largest gas discovery in over 30 years and lost nearly 30% of your share value the same day.…
