Smallcap Oil & Gas weekly round-up. With a sprinkling of Miners!

Aminex;

The oil and gas company listed in London and Dublin  issued its Interim Management Statement. Highlights of which were the Rig mobilisation for Nyuni-2 well, offshore Tanzania, which will be spudded shortly. Next prospect in Ruvuma Basin now identified and awaiting government consent for drilling this year. Recent Development Licence award for Kiliwani North gas field is key to commercialisation. Further drilling planned this summer at Shoats Creek, Louisiana. Sunny Ernst-2, Alta Loma, Texas now recompleted and producing from the ‘S’ sands.  New PSA to replace expiring agreement at Nyuni, Tanzania is negotiated and awaiting ratification. Institutional placing and open offer of new shares in first quarter raising £26 million  leaves Aminex securely funded to implement a significant exploration and development programme. The Chairman Brian Hall commented “We have an active drilling and development programme coming up this year, with exploration wells in Tanzania, development wells in the USA and commercialisation of the Kiliwani North gas field all moving ahead.  We enjoyed strong levels of support during our recent fund-raising and are optimistic that our forthcoming activities will deliver positive results.”

Argos resources;

The oil & gas exploration company with assets in the North Falkland Basin, confirmed that the 2010 Annual Report and Accounts is now available via the Company’s website www.argosresources.com,

Bahamas Petroleum;

Announced preliminary evaluation results from the fully processed  2011 PSTM and 2010 PSDM 2D seismic data, set out in an Exploration Update Report  which has been posted on the Company’s website at www.bpcplc.com.  The Report includes results from independent experts on structural analysis of PSTM (Pre Stack Time Migration) and PSDM (Pre Stack Depth Migration) seismic data, structural and stratigraphic interpretation of PSTM data and definition of size and closure of prospects. The data interpretation includes newly processed maps, seismic lines and preliminary Amplitude versus Offset (AVO) analysis.

Beacon Hill Resources;

T he AIM listed coal producer, announced its results for the year ended 31 December 2010. Copies of which can be found on their website at     www.bhrpl c.com

Borders & Southern;

Announced that it has assigned two of its option wells under its contract for the drilling unit, Leiv Eiriksson, to Falkland Oil and Gas. The two wells will follow on from B&S’s Darwin and Stebbing wells, which are anticipated to commence drilling in December of this year. Under the terms of the Assignment Agreement the companies will share mobilisation and demobilisation costs for the rig along with ancillary equipment and services. Further on they released Preliminary Results for the 12 months ended 31 December 2010 highlights of which were; “Selected drilling locations on the Darwin and Stebbing prospects.Initiated detailed well designs. Procured long lead items. Advanced logistical planning for operations.  Signed rig assignment agreement with a healthy Cash balance of $194 million”

Caza Oil & Gas;

Informed the market that they had  commenced drilling on the O.B. Ranch #2  appraisal well. The well is a direct offset to the O.B. Ranch #1 discovery well and is well is targeting the Eocene, Cook Mountain interval between 12,400 and 12,900 feet, which is the stratigraphic interval producing in the O.B. Ranch #1 well.

Central Rand Gold;

Released their interims. Since the last Company announcement dated 29 March 2011, the Company together with other industry stakeholders have held four meetings with the South African Department of Water Affairs (“DWA”). The purpose of these meetings was to clarify and agree on the technical principles, funding allocation and timing of the implementation of an interim solution to the AMD problem currently being experienced in the Central Basin of the Witwatersrand area.

Dominion Petroleum;

Signed a  Production Sharing Contract for Block L9 in the Lamu Basin, offshore Kenya,  Dominion has a 60% working interest with operatorship. And will now begin to reprocess 2,500km of 2D seismic data, whilst carrying out block wide G&G studies and acquire 500km2 of 3D seismic data in the initial two year exploration period.

EnCore Oil;

Punters favourite EO said the latest  Cladhan appraisal well, the third well of a four well programme located in North Sea Blocks 210/29a & 210/30a encountered two Upper Jurassic reservoir sand sequences but the sands are water wet. The joint venture group will now drill the final side-track of this drilling phase. EnCore added that the results suggest that the Cladhan field is likely confined to the Northern Channel belt area and an area up dip of the deep fan well.

Enegi Oil;

Announced that they have secured an exclusive, four month option, at nominal cost to acquire the entire share capital of Advanced Buoy Technology. ABT is an Aberdeen based business, wholly owned by Alan Minty, the Chairman and CEO of Enegi, established to develop solutions using buoy technology that enables cost-effective exploitation of offshore oil fields that are currently considered marginal or sub-economic. ABT has been developed independently of Enegi. In order to undertake due diligence and to meet its working capital requirements Enegi has secured a three year Equity Line F.acility of up to £7.5 million.

Faroe Petroleum;

Informed the market that it had now completed the acquisition of an 18% interest in the Blane oil field from Eni.

Ithaca Energy;

Have suspended their J03 well on the Jacky field after encountering a smaller than anticipated oil column in the Beatrice ‘A’ Sand reservoir. Technical work is ongoing to determine whether to re-enter the well and complete it as a water injector to maximise oil recovery from the Jacky field. A workover operation to replace downhole pumps in the J01 production well is underway.

Kea Petroleum;

Announced it is to ustilise the Atlas Rig #2 to drill the Hoadleys-1 well  in Queensland’s onshore Surat Basin. Kea is earning a 50% interest in the licence and will become the licence Operator by part funding Hoadleys-1 plus another well. Rig#2 is expected to arrive  in late June, with the Hoadleys-1 well expected to be drilled during July. Kea stated that onshore Taranaki,  Wingrove-2 well  is advancing to production, despite being delayed by adverse weather conditions. First production of the waxy oil is expected in the next few weeks.

Max Petroleum;

At last some good news for holders of Max the company announced said that the ZMA-ET2 appraisal well in the Zhana Makat Field in Kazakhstan has logged 18 metres of net oil pay in three Triassic sandstones. Reservoir quality appears excellent with porosities ranging from 18 to 26%. The well is being cased for production testing.

Nighthawk Energy;

Announced that it  now has 12 wells on test production. Q1 2011 production totalled 2,062 barrels of oil net to Nighthawk, a reduction on Q4 due to well decline and worse than average winter weather which curtailed production operations. The drilling of four development wells in the core area around Nighthawk’s Craig Ranch field has been delayed due to lack of availability of a rig.

Petro Matad;

Has spud the Davsan Tolgoi-5  exploration well. The DT-5 well will test a portion of the recently identified Uvgan Gal paleovalley as well as part of the Lower Tsagaansav Formation. The company also stated that Davsan Tolgoi-4 well had reached total depth and initial petrophysical analysis indicates that an interval of oil-saturated core retrieved at the top of the Lower Tsagaantsav contains a minimum of 6m of net pay. The zone will be tested as part of the 2011 well testing program. Additional, deeper zones in DT-4 have also exhibited the presence of hydrocarbons and are being evaluated through detailed petrophysical and core analysis.

Petroceltic International;

Have contracted a second drilling rig for its enlarged appraisal campaign on the Isarene Permit in Algeria. KCA Deutag’s Nomad class drilling rig T-211 will work on up to three wells alongside the existing Dalma Rig LR-12 on the Ain Tsila Field appraisal programme.

PetroLatina;

Announced a change at the top they appointed Luis Guillermo Acosta as Chief Operating Officer. Luis Guillermo, aged 44,is a petroleum engineer with over 22 years experience in the oil and gas industry in Colombia and overseas, including 14 years with BP in the UK, Colombia and most recently, Houston.

Solomon Gold;

Announced further encouraging results on its 100% owned Fauro Island Project in Solomon Islands. Highlights of which are thus; Additional diamond drill hole intersections from FDDH001; 2m @ 1.15g/t Au from 121m and 2m @ 1.50g/t Au from 153m.  In FDDH002 additional diamond drill hole intersections; 4m @ 3.26g/t Au from 123m (incl. 1m @ 11.64g/t Au) and 3m @ 14.86g/t Au from 207m (incl. 1m @ 44.45g/t Au). Diamond Drill hole FDDH003 completed to 348m. Porphyry assay results are pending.  First diamond drill hole to commence on Ballyorlo Prospect.  IP survey completed over Ballyorlo and Meriguna Prospects, now on Kiovakase Prospects.  Surface based exploration continues on all the Fauro Island Prospects.

Tower Resources;

Said that they expect to receive an updated CPR over its multi-billion barrel resource potential prospects, offshore Namibia, in late June. The first exploration well is anticipated in early 2012.In Uganda, a seismic survey based on the information provided by a gravity gradiometry survey is ready to begin so that a well can be drilled before the end of 2011.

That’s the lot!

Daniel