Israel’s Opportunity lists subsidiary on Cyprus stock market [Financial Mirror (Cyprus)]

CO Cyprus Opportunity Energy, part of an Israel-Norwegian consortium that bid for two offshore gas exploration licenses in May, has listed on the Cyprus Stock Exchange’s Emerging Market sector (NEA).

The company listed 8.4 mln shares on Tuesday trading at 1.25 euros each (USD 1.53) giving it a market cap of 10.49 mln euros (USD 12.85 mln).

The CSE’s NEA market currently comprises 13 stocks, mainly foreign-owned, four of which were listed this year, giving the near defunct Cypriot bourse a shot in the arm when its main sector has lost 57% in value since January, due mainly to the crash of banking stocks.

Cyprus Opportunity Energy is part of the consortium that bid for blocks 2 and 8 in the second licensing round of the Cyprus natural gas exploration contest that attracted 15 bids.

US-based Noble Energy, that has already established its own natural gas platform in the adjacent Israeli waters, discovered a potential 7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas last December in the only block within the Cyprus Exclusive Economic Zone that was licensed three years ago. Noble hopes to extract gas supplies the earliest by 2016.

The consortium that is headed by Cyprus Opportunity also includes Israel Opportunity Oil & Gas Exploration and Norway’s AGR Energy AS.

The consortium has declared that if it fails to win any of the licenses it has bid for when these are awarded next October or November, it will remain listed on the CSE and will seek cooperation with other gas exploration companies.