Heritage Oil in share buyback
UK oil explorer Heritage Oil announced a $100M share buyback, after a halving in its share price since January and as the explorer faces a $313m lawsuit from former partner Tullow Oil.
Explorers rarely engage in buybacks because their business model usually involves spending their cash on finding new fields.
“The recent share price performance following the discovery of the Miran gas field in Kurdistan neither reflects the underlying value of the assets nor our belief in the longer term prospects of the company,” Heritage said.
Investors were disappointed when it transpired a big discovery Heritage made in Iraq contained a lot of gas, which is harder to sell than oil.
Tullow is suing Heritage in relation to a tax dispute around the sale of oil fields in Uganda.