Greetings from sunny Crete. Another awful week as the Global meltdown continues apace. Keep your eyes on Wessex Exploration as we here continue to source information on the company. It’s no wonder Greece are bust I’ve passed over 20 shops on the island of Crete selling wait for it wait for it…… Furs. Yes Fur coats! It’s 34 degrees in the shade so obviously a fur coat is a must have!
Borders & Southern : BOR
Announced this week that well 61/25-1 (Stebbing) has been successfully plugged and abandoned, bringing to an end the Company’s current two well drilling programme. The Leiv Eiriksson drilling rig will now be assigned to Falkland Oil and Gas for its two well programme after which it will be demobilised. A successful failure! For further information please visit www.bordersandsouthern.com
Chariot Oil & Gas : CHAR
Confirmed that drilling operations are under way on the Nimrod prospect offshore Namibia. The Kabeljou (2714/6-1) exploration well will be the second in Chariot’s 4 to 5 well Namibian drilling programme and it is being drilled using the Ocean Rig Poseidon drill ship. The Nimrod prospect is located in the Orange Basin in Southern Block 2714A where Chariot has a 25 percent equity interest. Petrobras has a 30 percent interest in the licence and is the operator with BP having 45 percent. The drilling location is 77 kilometres offshore Namibia in 360 metres of water with an estimated total drilling depth of approximately 3,350 metres true vertical depth subsea. The drilling and logging operations are expected to take approximately 60 days. Paul Welch, the chief executive of Chariot, said: “We are very pleased to announce the spud of our second well in our 4-5 well drilling programme which will run through to the end of 2013. Nimrod is the biggest prospect in our inventory and any success would be transformational for both Chariot and Namibia. We look forward to being able to update the market with the well results in due course.”
Coastal Energy : CEO
Has released details of an interim reserves evaluation by independent assessors RPS of its onshore and offshore reserves in Thailand. RPS’s report was prepared to incorporate Coastal’s drilling results at Bua Ban North & South in 2012 as well as information from core analyses which were completed after an earlier RPS published in March 2012. Offshore Proved reserves (1P) increased by 30% to 81.0 million barrels and offshore Proved plus Probable reserves (2P) increased by 60% to 127.7 million barrels. Total company Proved reserves (1P) increased by 26% to 87.9 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) and total company Proved plus Probable reserves (2P) increased by 45% to 149.1 mmboe. Separately, in an operations update, Coastal said that two horizontal development wells and two water injection wells had been drilled at Bua Ban North. The two horizontal wells are producing approximately 1,800 barrels of oil per day (bopd) each. Current offshore production is 22,500 bopd, with total company production averaging 24,500 boepd.
Egdon Resources : EDR
Trumpheted this week that it has completed the acquisition of the entire issued share capital of Dorset Exploration Limited. DEL is a private company which holds 10% interests in Production Licence PL090 and Petroleum Exploration and Production Licence PEDL237, both located in the county of Dorset. Egdon Resources U.K. Limited is operator for both these Licences with a 45% interest in each.
Falkland Oil & Gas : FOGL
The oil and gas exploration company focused on its extensive licence areas to the South and East of the Falkland Islands, noted the announcement made ythis week regarding the ‘Completion of the 2012 drilling programme’ by Borders & Southern Petroleum plc. The Leiv Eiriksson is now under contract to FOGL and its joint venture partner Edison International Spa. The rig has commenced its move to the Loligo well location. A further update will be provided once the well has spudded.
Jupiter Energy : JPRL
The Kazakhstan-focused oil exploration and production company, quoted on AIM (“JPRL”) and ASX (“JPR”), is pleased to announce that the $US3.45m of convertible notes held by Soyuzneftegas Capital Limited (“SNG”) have today been converted into ordinary shares in the capital of the Company (“Ordinary Shares”).
Kea Petroleum : KEA
News came this week from KEA as they announced that testing operations at the Puka 1 well are commencing following recent inclement weather in the Taranaki region which delayed preparatory works. Richard Parkes has been appointed as Managing Director of Kea Petroleum Holdings Ltd, the principal New Zealand operating subsidiary of Kea Petroleum. Over the past month in excess of 780mm of rain has fallen in the Puka area delaying preparatory civil works required for testing operations. Recent clear weather has permitted the necessary access road upgrades to be completed and civil works to commence on site and it is now expected that equipment will be mobilised to site commencing today with the initial flow period expected to commence on or about 6 August 2012. The total flow period of the test is expected to be of the order of 30 days, however the flow period will include regular analysis of the flow characteristics during the test, which may provide opportunities for interim updates. Following the Puka-1 test programme, an appraisal programme including both wells and seismic, will be defined and initiated. Kea announced on 10 April 2012 that Puka-1 had intersected a 40m interval of Mt. Messenger reservoir quality sands with a net pay of between 4.5m and 9m. Kea has not altered its original estimate of gross recoverable resource of one million barrels of oil with a potential upside of up to three million barrels of oil. On 11 June 2012 Kea announced that oil recovered from sampling was excellent quality light oil with a density of 43.7 Degrees API and a relatively low pour point of 15 Degrees Centigrade.
Range Resources : RRL
Sad sorry RRL released what can only be described as a reiteration of their woeful performance over and through-out 2012. Copies og the QUARTERLY REPORT FOR PERIOD ENDING 30 JUNE 2012 Can be viewed by clicking the link. http://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-detail.html?announcementId=11283835
Rialto Energy : RIA
Set out its plans for third quarter development work on its assets in West Africa as it presses towards starting production in early 2014. Rialto secured an AIM quote in April this year and is currently developing fields offshore Côte d’Ivoire. It recently installed a 6-slot well template at the Gazelle Field and on July 25 spudded the Gazelle-P4 development well. Gazelle-P4 is testing the oil potential of the UC-2 and UC-4 oil reservoirs as well as the gas potential of the UC-3, UC-5, LC-1 and LC-2 gas reservoirs discovered by the earlier IVCO-12 and IVCO-21 wells. In the coming third quarter of 2012 Rialto will continue its drilling operations in CI-202, progress Gazelle FEED, integrate new 3D seismic data, and begin to plan for the next phase of exploration and appraisal drilling in 2013.
Sound Oil : SOU
The upstream oil and gas company with assets in Italy and Indonesia, announced the appointment of the Italian engineering company CSTI Srl as engineering contractor for the Rapagnano Gas Field and a related funding contract. Sound Oil has appointed CSTI to undertake the surface and facilities engineering for the Rapagnano project and has also signed an associated funding contract with CSTI. Under the terms of the funding contract: CSTI will fund directly €500,000 (52%) of the total capital required for the development of Rapagnano. These funds will be used to pay for facilities equipment and related services.
The Parkmead Group :PMG
Reported strong results from its Platypus gas appraisal well, which recorded a test flow rate of 27 million standard cubic feet of gas per day per day on a 96/64″ choke. The Southern North Sea well 48/1a-6 was spudded on 11 April 2012 with the Ensco 80 jack up drilling rig. It reached a total measured depth of 14,175 feet on 19 June having successfully drilled a 3,100 foot horizontal section within the reservoir. A Drill Stem Test was successfully completed on 23 July and the well is being suspended for use as a future production well. The Dana Petroleum-operated Platypus gas field is located in Block 48/1a in the UK Southern North Sea. It was discovered in 2010, when the Dana-operated 48/1a-5 well encountered significant gas bearing Lower Leman Sandstone reservoir.
Tower Resources : TRP
Has confirmed that Spain’s Repsol is set to take a 44% working interest in the Namibian offshore licence 0010 and become operator Tower’s subsidiary, Neptune Petroleum, has also entered into a farm out agreement with Arcadia Expro Namibia to convert Tower’s 15 percent carried interest in the licence to a 30 percent working interest, subject to regulatory approvals. Under the terms of the farm-out agreement, Neptune is liable to reimburse to Arcadia 30 percent of its past costs on the licence, amounting to approximately US$5.3 million (£3.4 million) and will assume 30 percent of future costs. Provided that the transfers are completed, the ongoing interests in the licence will be Repsol 44 percent, Tower 30 percent and Arcadia 26 percent.
Xcite Energy : XEL
Announced a series of Board and senior management appointments as the Company continues successfully to progress its development of the Bentley field in the current Phase 1A work programme. Richard Smith has decided to retire from his role as Chief Executive Officer and as a Director of the Company while Rupert Cole has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer. He is a founding member of Xcite Energy and previously held the role of Chief Financial Officer. He will continue to maintain overall responsibility for the strategic financing of the Company and the associated external relationships. Stephen Kew, also a founding member of Xcite Energy and currently Exploration and Development Director, will formally take on the role of Chief Operating Officer for the Company, which will continue to include his responsibilities for oilfield asset acquisition and development. Jon Dale has been appointed as Finance Director of Xcite Energy Resources, the Company’s 100% owned operating subsidiary. He has been the Xcite Energy group’s financial controller since early 2008 and was appointed as Company Secretary for XER in September 2011. Andrew Fairclough has been appointed as Corporate Affairs Director for the Xcite Energy group. He will play a leading role in the Company’s external communications and relationship management. He has over 17 years of corporate broking and corporate finance experience, having previously worked for a number of leading financial institutions, including Espirito Santo Investment Bank, Merrill Lynch and Rothschild. Matt Bower has been appointed as Operations Director for XER, taking over full responsibility for operational matters from Richard West on completion of the Phase 1A work programme. Following the completion of the Phase 1A work programme, Richard West will assume responsibility for industry related regulatory and compliance matters for XER, thus providing important continuity in the transition from Phase 1A to Phase 1B of the Bentley field development. Commenting on today’s appointments Roger Ramshaw, Chairman, trotted out the usual meaning-less platitudes! “We thank Richard for his important contribution up to this point and as one of the founding members of the Company. We wish him well in his future endeavours. The Board is pleased to appoint Rupert as CEO and to welcome Andrew to work in the external communications role. With Steve formally taking on the group COO role, Matt’s appointment to the XER Board and Jon taking on the FD role for XER, the Aberdeen operations group is in safe hands and we have a good balance in our financial management. With the good progress being made in the current well operations, as announced separately today, together with this strengthened management team now in place to continue driving our on-going operational, financial and commercial progress, the Company remains firmly on track to deliver its strategic objectives.”
