A North Sea exploration minnow led by one of the co-founders of Ithaca Energy and Iona Energy is a step closer to taking over a North Sea discovery with plans to list on the stock market to raise the cash needed to develop the field.
i3 Energy, founded in 2014 and led by Neill Carson, has £1.1 million backing from investment firm Glenwick, in the form of a pre-IPO convertible bond note (it'll get i3 shares when the firm lists on the stock market).
The loan was given to help i3 buy a field currently in the hands of a supermajor under a deal which could only go ahead following approval of it becoming an operator of the license by the UK's Oil and Gas Authority.
That approval has now been given, with the deal now likely to go through and i3 set to seek admission to the stock market. The field and seller have yet to the named but more details are expected in coming weeks.
Carson co-founded Ithaca Energy in 2004 and then Iona Energy in 2008, and was CEO of the latter up to 2014. Iona Energy went into administration then insolvency in 2015, following a failed farmout deal, leaving the firm with little cash.
Carson completed his Bachelors and Master degrees in the Geosciences from British universities, Ulster/Birmingham University respectively, and started his career with Amoco/BP Amoco.
i3 co-founder Graham Heath also worked at Iona. Chief developments officer John Woods previously worked at Ithaca Energy and Wood Group, before which he was asset manager of the Scott asset in the UK North Sea.
Mihai Butuc, Manager New Ventures, was also at Ithaca Energy, as well as Dana Petroleum, and before that Halliburton, working with Total.
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