United Oil & Gas, the explorer which is plotting a listing in London, is looking to raise around £3m as part of a share placing in tandem with its reverse takeover of Senterra Energy, the Sunday Independent understands.

The company has interests in the UK and has just agreed a deal to take a stake in a field in Italy. The funds will be used to cover its share of drilling costs as it seeks to drill wells at both prospects in the next nine months.

Chief executive Brian Larkin would not confirm how much money the company is looking to raise but said the firm was “enthusiastic to get under way”.
He told the Sunday Independent that the company is: “Looking to build our portfolio and…evaluating options in a number of regions.

“We wouldn’t rule out Africa or South America, we have experience there. Our model is to identify low cost, low-risk licenses which have near term activity. At present, the most attractive assets have been in the UK and Europe.”
United was set up by Larkin, who has held production, development and exploration roles at Tullow Oil and commercial and finance positions at Providence Resources, and technical director Jonathan Leather, who has worked for Tullow and Shell.

“We’d like to build an oil company with a range of assets, production, development and exploration. But, our job is to deliver value, if at some stage, an offer came along that made sense to monetise a single license or sell the whole company, then ultimately you have to look at that. It’s our vision, but it’s not our company. We have to deliver for the shareholders,” Larkin said.
The UK asset is at and around the Waddock Cross Field in Essex, which previously was in production. United is eyeing opportunities to re-start production on foot of new data.