Ascent Resources has conditionally raised £6 million (before expenses) by way of a placing by Astaire Securities plc ('Astaire') of 120,000,000 new ordinary shares of 0.1 pence each in the capital of the Company ('the Placing Shares'), with new and existing shareholders at a price of 5 pence per Placing Share ('the Placing Price') ('the Placing'). The funds raised will be used to accelerate the development of the Company's balanced portfolio of European oil and gas production and exploration projects.

Ascent Managing Director Jeremy Eng said, "Our business model of investing primarily onshore in Europe has proved popular with investors. Naturally, the fact that our last four drilling programmes have all been successful has also ensured support from new and existing shareholders. Not only does the Placing strengthen our institutional shareholder base, but it also enables us to implement our 2010 development plan, which is focussed on proving up reserves and increasing production.

"Our priority is to realise near term value and therefore the funds from the Placing will be applied to those projects that can produce near term cash flow. With this in mind, a key focus will be the Peti?ovci oilfield in Slovenia where preliminary results from the 3-D seismic are above our expectations; new prospects are available for drilling and there is near term potential for production in 2010."

Ascent Resources has conditionally raised £6 million (before expenses) by way of a placing by Astaire Securities plc ('Astaire') of 120,000,000 new ordinary shares of 0.1 pence each in the capital of the Company ('the Placing Shares'), with new and existing shareholders at a price of 5 pence per Placing Share ('the Placing Price') ('the Placing'). The funds raised will be used to accelerate the development of the Company's balanced portfolio of European oil and gas production and exploration projects.

Ascent Managing Director Jeremy Eng said, "Our business model of investing primarily onshore in Europe has proved popular with investors. Naturally, the fact that our last four drilling programmes have all been successful has also ensured support from new and existing shareholders. Not only does the Placing strengthen our institutional shareholder base, but it also enables us to implement our 2010 development plan, which is focussed on proving up reserves and increasing production.

"Our priority is to realise near term value and therefore the funds from the Placing will be applied to those projects that can produce near term cash flow. With this in mind, a key focus will be the Peti?ovci oilfield in Slovenia where preliminary results from the 3-D seismic are above our expectations; new prospects are available for drilling and there is near term potential for production in 2010."

Tags: Ascent Resources plc