Good evening,

The board of Carnarvon Energy, the $402 million oil and gas explorer whose crown jewel is a 10 per cent stake in the Dorado project alongside Santos, has given its bankers the go-ahead to seek bids for the company or its assets.

Street Talk understands JPMorgan’s resources advisory team has mailed out a six-page flyer talking up its prospects, only days after the company told shareholders it had brought in the investment bank to explore “alternative transactions to accelerate value realisation”.

The flyer, seen by this column, goes beyond the official announcement, spelling out Carnarvon would consider a sale (at corporate level as well as for individual assets), merger or another deal structure that maximises shareholder value. Sources said the process is targeting Australian groups, Asian energy players and larger global groups, plenty of whom should be in Perth next week for the Australian Energy Producers conference.

Carnarvon has identified 3.3 billion-plus barrels of oil equivalent at its two projects Dorado and Pavo in Western Australia’s Bedout Basin – but is staring down a circa $US2 billion ($3 billion) gross capital expenditure. Bigger of the two, Dorado, has been billed as “Australia’s largest undeveloped conventional oil resource” with a final investment decision expected to be made this year.

The $25 billion Santos is the operator as well as 80 per cent owner of Dorado, while Carnarvon is holding on to 10 per cent, after selling a 10 per cent stake to Taiwan’s CPC Corporation for up to $US146 million last year in a process run by Azure Capital.

Read the full story tomorrow and more on the Street Talk page.

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