Australian energy company WHL Energy Limited says that the Seychelles Petroleum Company Limited (SEYPEC), a 100% owned agency of the Republic of Seychelles Government, has elected to invest in the Company and its highly prospective offshore Seychelles oil and gas exploration interests.

Under the agreement, SEYPEC will invest A$2,080,000 to acquire 65 million WHL Energy ordinary shares at A$0.032 each, representing an offer at the same price as the Tranche 2 placement being proposed to shareholders at the scheduled meeting on 31 May 2011. The placement to SEYPEC will be effective May 31 2011, subject to shareholder approval being received for resolutions 1 and 2 by WHL Energy shareholders at the same meeting.

WHL Energy Ltd Chief Executive Officer, Mr David Rowbottam, commented,'We are honoured that SEYPEC has chosen to invest in WHL Energy and we welcome their support of the Company in its endeavours to explore for oil and gas in the nation's waters.'

'SEYPEC has been kept well informed of the progress we have made with our exploration work, including the results of the Independent Expert Report conducted by Isis Petroleum Consultants Pty Ltd ('Isis') and they have recognised the potential our large Seychelles interests have,' Mr Rowbottam said.

The Isis studies recently confirmed the potential of 12 leads across 4 different plays in WHL Energy's Seychelles exploration holdings and estimated that these leads have the potential to contain unrisked mean oil in place of between 166 million barrels and 5.44 billion barrels per lead.

The funds provided under the SEYPEC share purchase agreement will assist in financing the interpretation of data acquired under a recently completed 7,887km 2D seismic program undertaken over key areas of WHL Energy's 20,700km2 of Seychelles exploration holdings.

The WHL Energy seismic acquisition program was part of the largest survey ever conducted in the Republic of Seychelles, comprising 19,608 km of 2D seismic acquisition, which was commissioned by SEYPEC in September 2010.

SEYPEC is the government arm responsible for overseeing Oil and Gas Exploration in the Republic of the Seychelles Exclusive Economic Zone ('EEZ'). Captain Guy Adam, CEO SEYPEC commented 'SEYPEC welcomes the opportunity to support WHL Energy in its endeavours to explore for hydrocarbons in our region. We have been encouraged by the Company's professional approach during the recent seismic acquisition and look forward to reviewing the interpretation of the data with them.'

Recent success in East Africa has served to heighten industry attention in the Seychelles and the Seychelles government continues to meet with major Oil and Gas organisations interested to explore in the Seychelles EEZ.

Tags: WHL Energy Limited