The Smallcap Oil & Gas round up.

Hello & welcome to the first Oil & Gas round up of 2013. News is a bit thin on the ground this week but rest assured all will get back to normal as the sector shakes off its festive lethargy.

Bridge Energy LON:BRDG
Farmed down a 16.5% interest in the Aragon prospect in the UK North Sea to Agora Oil & Gas and JX Nippon. A well to test the Aragon prospect will be drilled prior to Q1 2015.

Circle  Oil LON:COP
Has appointed Mr Hassan Hataba as General Manager for Circle Oil Egypt Ltd, effective 1 January 2013. At the same time, Mr Tarek Elbarkatawy has resigned as General Manager for Circle Oil Egypt and has been appointed as First Undersecretary for Exploration and Agreements, Egypt, Ministry of Petroleum.

Enegi Oil LON:ENEG
Has been awarded 100% interests in licences over North Sea blocks 22/12b and 3/23a.

GeoPark Holdings LON:GPK
Announced this week that they have drilled, tested and put into production a new oil well, Tua 2, in the Tua oil field on the Llanos 34 Block in Colombia. Geopark now has three wells in production in the field and expects to drill two more in 2013.

Magnolia Petroleum LON:MAGP
Entered into an agreement to acquire 985 net mineral acres in Montana for a cash consideration of US$546,000.

Nighthawk Energy LON:HAWK
Released record production volumes for December and the fourth quarter of 2012. The company’s 100% controlled Smoky Hill & Jolly Ranch projects in the Denver-Julesburg Basin of Colorado, produced an average 276 bbls/day during December.Average total oil production during Q4 was 192 bbls/day. This was some what tempered by the fact that on a 12 month basis the bopd was actually 86 bopd. Along way away from initial production rates some as high as 600boepd. Shut-ins have also contributed to lowered production. All in all a half decent RNS.

Northern Petroleum LON:NOP
Announced that GM-ES-3 the second well of the current four-well programme in the Guyane Maritime Permit (French Guiana), was spudded by Shell as Operator on 29th December 2012.

Leni Gas & Oil LON:LENI
The gloves came off this week as Leni threw the first punch in their fisticuffs with Mediterranean Oil and Gas LON:MOG. Legal proceedings over the sale by Leni to Mediterranean of a Maltese licence interest for $1. Mediterranean refutes Leni’s claims as unfounded. The question investors should be asking isn’t of MOG’s sharp business which is to be applauded but of Leni’s decision to try to stick what they obviously thought was a white elephant up the jacksy of MOG. Who was it that came to the conclusion that the Maltese interest was worth a quid? The whole affair smacks of sour grapes!

Matra Petroleum LON:MTA
Non-Executive Director Gideon Tadmor parted ways with Matra this week.

Max Petroleum LON;MAX
Has completed the initial closing of its US$90 million senior credit facility with SB Sberbank JSC, allowing the Company to draw down up to US$60 million to repay US$47 million to Macquarie Bank and partially fund its ongoing shallow drilling programme. As of 28 December 2012, the Company had paid Macquarie US$47 million in accordance with the terms of its comprehensive debt restructuring and had cancelled the Macquarie credit facility. A further US$3 million payment is expected to be paid to Macquarie by 31 March 2013 to fully settle all remaining obligations owed to Macquarie under the terms of the Restructuring. A further US$30 million will be made available under the Sberbank Facility as soon as certain conditions precedent are met, including the registering of security and obtaining requisite government regulatory approvals, which are expected to be completed by 31 March 2013. The second tranche of the Sberbank Facility will be used to fund the remaining US$3 million payment to Macquarie, approximately US$3.4 million owed to certain tendering bondholders of the Company’s US$85.6 million 6.75% convertible bonds and the Company’s ongoing shallow exploration and production drilling programme and related expenses. As announced on 21 December 2012, a total of US$6.7 million in principal amount of the Bonds were tendered for cash payment out of a total principal amount available for tender of US$17.1 million. The Company will make a payment to tendering Bondholders of 50% of the US$6.7 million principal amount tendered out of the second tranche of the Sberbank Facility and the Bonds accepted into the tender will be cancelled. The remaining principal amount of the Bonds, together with accrued interest, will be converted into the Company’s ordinary shares of 0.01p at a price of 5p per Share in two tranches. The first tranche of approximately US$56.7 million of Bonds and accrued interest was converted into approximately 709 million Shares on 21 December 2012. The remaining US$22.2 million in Bonds, plus accrued interest, will be mandatory converted into Shares following the receipt of requisite Kazakh regulatory approvals expected in the first half of 2013. Following conversion, each tranche of the Shares will be allotted and applications will be made for them to be admitted to trading on AIM. The first Admission is of 709 million Shares is expected to occur on 31 December 2012. It is expected that a total of approximately 1,052 million Shares will be issued to Bondholders pursuant to the Restructuring assuming that all outstanding Bonds are converted into Shares by 31 March 2013.

Mediterranean Oil & Gas LON:MOG
Announced that Peter Jackson has been appointed to their Board.

Petrel Resources LON:PET
Guy Delbès has left the building. Another Non-Exec bites the dust.

Silvermere Energy LON:SLME
Provided an update on the sales of oil and gas from its Mustang Island 818-L Field following the announcement dated 4 December 2012. This is based on information provided by the Operator, Dominion. As of the 31.Dec.2012 the main interconnect pipeline operated by Exxon Mobil remains shut down as a result of the repair work being carried out on it taking longer than expected. It is anticipated that the pipeline will be restored to operation in the near future and the Company will issue a further update as soon as any further information becomes available.

Sound Oil LON;SOU
Said that all resolutions put to the General Meeting held earlier today were duly passed. Bring on the consolidation and watch them slowly super dilute the stock. As a result, every 10 existing ordinary shares of 0.1p each that are in issue as at 5.00 p.m. today will be consolidated into one ordinary share of 1p each. Application has been made for the New Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM and this is expected to become effective at 8.00 a.m. on 7 January 2013.

ViaLogy LON:VIY
Announced that Chevron has expanded its contract for QuantumRD analysis of tracts in the Delaware Basin. I wouldn’t get your hopes up here. The last company making deal with Chevron turned out to be a “Paltry crumb”

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