Darum dreht es sich: The ANH may not approve the assignment of rights to us in the E&P properties in which we have invested and are continuing to invest, and, as a result, we may not be able to legally protect our rights under our agreements with the operators of the applicable properties.
Our operating subsidiary, La Cortez Colombia, has completed paying all of its Phase 2 commitments on the Maranta Block and Emerald is ready to assign and transfer to La Cortez Colombia the agreed upon 20% participating interest in the Maranta Block, subject to approval by Colombia’s hydrocarbon regulatory agency, the ANH. We submitted to Emerald the required written request for Emerald to apply to the ANH for approval of the assignment. The ANH denied the assignment of the 20% to La Cortez Energy because our financial indicators did not comply with the minimum requirements set out by the ANH, mainly arising from the classification of derivative warrants instruments as a current liability in the Company’s balance sheet under US GAAP rules.
Emerald and we have agreed to use our best endeavors to seek in good faith a legal way to enter into an agreement with terms equivalent to their farm-in agreement and joint operating agreement, that shall privately govern the relations between the parties and which will not require ANH approval. If Emerald and we are not able to do this, then we may not be able to legally protect or enforce our rights under the farm-in agreement, resulting, possibly, in capital and income losses to us.
Likewise, we have submitted to Petronorte the required written request for Petronorte to apply to the ANH for approval of the assignment. Petronorte will assign and transfer to us the agreed upon 50% participating interest in the Putumayo 4 Block, subject to ANH approval. Petronorte filed a request with the ANH for the official assignment of the 50% working interest in the Putumayo-4 block to La Cortez. The ANH informed Petronorte that it requires La Cortez to provide an additional financial guarantee. We are evaluating various options to decide whether to provide the additional guarantee or submit a new request later in 2012.
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