It’s been another terrible week for the small cap oilers. As fear continues to grip the markets. Just when will Greece exit? That is the question. Could Spain, Portugal & Italy follow? That’s another question that will quickly rear its head if the Greeks exit! All the uncertainty continues UNABATED as poor political judgement perpetuates the European sovereign debt crisis. Politicians fiddle (Literally) while Europe Burns!
Amerisur Resources;
Has substantially completed the Platanillo-3 well in the Platanillo Field, Colombia. The well – which is the first of a planned six well drilling campaign – has successfully reached total depth at 8,250ft and has been logged, cased and cemented. Drill Stem Testing equipment has been mobilised and is being rigged up to perform production tests. The surface equipment on location has also been constructed and commissioned. Reservoir sections encountered in the well are currently being studied to determine which zones will be tested. The company said that it was “encouraging” that the Lower “U” formation was encountered 33ft higher than the next highest well in the field, in line with the 3D seismic model, indicating the potential for an increased oil column.
Empyrean Energy;
Confirmed that it has executed a facility agreement with Macquarie Bank Limited to provide a 3 year term debt facility for up to US$50 million to support its participation in the development of the Sugarloaf Project, an Eagle Ford Shale Condensate and Gas development project in onshore Texas, USA.
Europa Oil & Gas;
Some good news came today from Europa as they announced the findings of a recently completed Competent Person’s Report by ERC Equipoise Limited. The report highlights the prospectivity of Europa’s core assets in the UK and France, specifically the 100% owned Bearn des Gaves permit containing the Berenx Deep and Berenx Shallow gas prospects located in the Aquitaine Basin, France.
Gulf Keystone Petroleum;
Released details from drilling work on the Ber Bahr-1 exploration well on the Ber Bahr block, which spudded last October. Genel Energy, the well operator, has now completed drilling and initial testing of the well, which was drilled to 3993m in the Chia Zairi formation. It encountered a 300m oil column in the Jurassic with matrix porosity of 17%. Two drill stem tests over the interval failed to flow and yielded inconclusive results, with evidence of perforations plugged with heavy oil. The well has been temporarily suspended whilst a work over rig is moved to the location to conduct an extended well test. Genel has also stated that further evaluation of the significant oil column will be required to determine whether the discovery is commercially viable.
Gulfsands Petroleum;
Said that production testing operations on its Sidi Dhaher No. 1 well in Tunisia are about to get under way. ADX Energy, Gulfsands’ partner on the Chorbane Licence onshore Tunisia, has completed the final safety and operational audits of the drilling rig and related equipment that will be used during the test work. Operations were scheduled to commence yesterday (Thursday, 31 May) with the drilling out of the first of the safety plugs that had been installed to secure the well.
Ithaca Energy;
Started production from the North Sea Athena field, as it ditched plans to sell itself to another group and has instead secured a new debt deal to help it expand. Ithaca has been in talks for some time over a possible takeover after initial discussions with a third party triggered a number of other approaches. However, Ithaca’s Board has decided that the process was unlikely to end in a deal that would properly reflect the company’s value. It is understood that the current volatility in global markets and the short term softening in Brent crude prices had been contributing factors to the decision.
Leni Oil & Gas;
Continued its downward spiral today as the company released their audited Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2011 Earlier this week Leni released a progress report on workover activities at the Goudron Field in south-eastern Trinidad. Workover rig Altech-1 was mobilized to the field as planned and has entered well GY-190 and retrieved the down-hole pump. The rig is currently withdrawing the production tubing from the well in order to remove any accumulated sand from the casing prior to re-running the tubing and pump. Repairs to the pump will be completed later this week and the well will be returned to production. Incremental production of up to 20 barrels of oil per day is anticipated as a result of this work. LGO expects to perform up to 50 similar workovers in the coming months.
Magnolia Petroleum;
Had a great bull run this week as rumours of excellent big production numbers from the Thomason 10-27-12 1H well circulated. Needless to say the run came to an abrupt end as the company released thus; Initial production rates of 124 bopd and 2,032 mcfpd for the in the Mississippi Lime Formation in Oklahoma. The output is mainly liquids rich gas, the first such well for Magnolia, with an oil equivalent production rate of 441 boepd, in line with management expectations. Magnolia holds a 12.5% working interest and a 9.375% net revenue interest in the Thomason well so the net initial production attributable to Magnolia arising from the Thomason is approximately 41 boepd. The sp is now in reverse.
New World Oil & Gas;
A company focused on making investments in the oil and gas sector, announces that the Belize Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment has formally approved the assignment of a further 12.5% which brings the Company’s total working interest in the Project to 25%.
Nighthawk Energy;
Will finish a 15 well work-over programme this month at its Jolly Ranch project in the Denver-Julesburg Basin of Colorado. The company said that plans for new drilling were well-advanced with permitting of 15-25 locations under way. Meanwhile, well locations for an initial four new wells have been selected while the overhaul and refurbishment of topside facilities and environmental remediation work continues. As part of the well work-over programme, one well has now been plugged and abandoned and it is likely that one further well will require plugging and abandonment. However, Nighthawk said that extensive geo-science work undertaken over the past few months had identified a number of attractive drilling opportunities and was seeking permits for 15-25 new well locations. The actual locations for the initial four wells in the drilling programme have been selected as high-impact opportunities and steps to secure an appropriate drilling rig and associated equipment are at an advanced stage. Drilling, logging and potential drill stem tests are expected to take around 15 days per well.
Nostra Terra Oil & Gas;
Tiddler with an attitude NTOG the AIM quoted oil and gas producer with a growing portfolio of horizontal and vertical drilling projects in the USA, announces that its Annual General Meeting will be held at 11.00am on 27 June 2012 at The Library, Travellers Club, 106 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5EP. A copy of the Annual Report & Accounts, notice of AGM and accompanying Form of Proxy have been dispatched to shareholders today and are also available on the Company’s website. http://www.ntog.co.uk/
PetroNeft Resources;
Signed a three-year loan agreement with Arawak for $15 million. The loan is secured on PetroNeft’s 50% interest in Licence 67 and will be repayable in one lump sum at the end of the three-year loan period in May 2015. The interest payable under the loan will be LIBOR plus 6%, a competitive rate given present market conditions. Under the terms of the loan PetroNeft also granted Arawak 4,000,000 warrants over shares at a strike price of US$0.1345 per share. The existing US$30m facility with Macquarie Bank Limited remains in place and Macquarie has granted permission under the terms of their facility for this additional debt facility with Arawak.
President Petroleum;
Released an “Argentina Operations Update” copies of which can be viewed by clicking this link; http://www.presidentpc.com/assets/downloads/Operations_Update_2012_05_28.pdf
Regal Petroleum;
Announced a deal to sell its 50 percent non-operated interest in the Suceava concession in Romania to Zeta Petroleum – a UK based company that recently listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.
Roxi Petroleum;
An operational update came today from Roxi. However on further reading it was nothing of the sort! “Roxi, the Central Asian oil and gas company with a focus on Kazakhstan, is pleased to announce the appointment of WH Ireland as the Company’s Nominated Adviser and sole broker.” Maybe Roxi should think again about this NOMAD’S employment? It doesn’t bode well that the new NOMAD’s first RNS release is a total cock-up!
Salamander Energy;
Announces the successful appraisal of the Tutung gas-condensate discovery through the drilling of the Tutung Alpha-3 appraisal well. The Tutung discovery is located in the Bontang PSC, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. The TA-3 well was spudded on 25th March 2012 and drilled to a total depth of 3,351 metres true vertical depth sub-sea using the MB Century-28 land rig. The well was targeting Middle Miocene sandstones of the Pulubalang formation. The TA-3 well found stacked sequences of deltaic sandstones in the target section on depth prognosis. These sandstone intervals were evaluated using logging while drilling log data and wire-line pressure testing and gas and fluid sampling. Sandstones within the target formation were found to be gas-bearing, and individual units of up to 15 metres gross thickness were encountered. The TA-3 well is currently being suspended, while work continues on the submission of a Plan of Development for the Tutung gas-condensate accumulation, which will incorporate the TA-3 well results.
Urinals oops! Urals Energy;
The pissing in the wind independent exploration and production company with operations in Russia, announces that Well #41 located in the Petrosakh Field has been successfully completed, with preliminary results showing approximately 140 bopd, which was within the target range. Following the successful result at Well #41, preparatory work has now begun on Well #53 also located in the Petrosakh Field. During the last stages of completion of work on well #41, the Company hosted representatives of Alpcot Capital Management Ltd, Urals’ largest investor. The representatives visited all existing wells, the refinery, and had a chance to meet with the drilling team, workers, and management on site and in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Urals Energy will announce Full Year results for the year ended 31 December 2011 in the week commencing 4th June 2012. (Don’t Bother!)
Victoria Oil & Gas;
The AIM quoted oil and gas exploration and production company with assets in Cameroon and the FSU, announces: completion of the second phase of the pipeline to central Douala; an equity placing of £3.15 million; an additional drawn down of US$1.2 million (£0.78 million) of loan finance (; and renewal of an existing Standby Equity Distribution Agreement.
Wessex Exploration;
Said that following the purchase of approximately 1,000 kilometres of 2-D seismic data shot by TGS-Nopec in 2006, Wessex has completed the reprocessing of the dataset, with particular emphasis on the shallow water area, which will allow a more accurate subsurface interpretation to be made. Wessex are currently negotiating terms for the re-interpretation of the data which once complete is likely to be followed up by a detailed 2-D seismic survey, or perhaps a more-focused 3-D survey, later this year, in preparation for the delineation of a drillable prospect later in 2013. This activity is in addition to the ongoing farm in negotiations which continue apace.
