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Politics : Rat's Nest - Chronicles of Collapse -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (1122)	7/17/2005 12:08:36 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 24225

Offshore gas and wind power generator prepares to float By Sylvia Pfeifer (Filed: 17/07/2005) A company that plans to develop the world's first offshore gas and wind energy generation project is preparing to float on the stock market early next year. Eclipse Energy submitted an application to build the innovative project in the waters off the Cumbrian coast to the Department of Trade and Industry last week. It hopes to obtain approval within six to nine months, after which it will consider a flotation. Ian Hatton, the managing director of Eclipse, confirmed that a float is now likely, although no firm valuation has yet been put on the business. "The institutions who invested in us [in private financing rounds] did so on the basis there would be a float at some time," he said. A listing would generate a windfall for Eclipse's two remaining founding directors, Hatton and Chris Smith, who between them have a stake of around 15 per cent. Westmount Energy, the Aim-listed oil and gas investment company, holds about 20 per cent of Eclipse, with the remainder of the shares being held by private individuals and several institutional investors. Eclipse was formed in 1999 to build the hybrid energy generation project, a world first. The £235m project will use gas from two undevel-oped fields, Ormonde North and South, which lie about 10km west of Barrow-in-Furness. Eclipse was awarded the marginal fields, thought to hold 60bn cubic feet of gas, in 2002. The Ormonde project will generate up to 200MW of electricity from two gas turbines, fuelled by gas from the fields, and from 30 offshore wind turbines. The project is expected to produce electricity from 2007. Unlike more conventional wind farms, which are dependent on the wind blowing, the gas-fired generation capacity ensures predictable power generation and revenues. The electricity will be brought onshore via cables and fed straight into the national grid. It could power up to 155,000 homes from gas and wind combined. Earlier this year Eclipse raised just under £5m in an institutional round led by Oriel Securities. telegraph.co.uk