Tweet

 

Email

Email to a friend:

To:

Separate multiple addresses with commas.

From:

Name: Please send me a copy Message:

Verification code

Enter the code from aboveRequired

Send

San Leon Energy  (LON:SLE) today announced that it has completed the acquisition of more than 2,280 km of 2D seismic across its Tarfaya and Zag Licenses onshore Morocco. The data was acquired by San Leon Energy's wholly owned subsidiary, NovaSeis, and San Leon will continue integrating the new seismic results into its existing basin model in preparation for opening a data room to seek partners for the exploration drilling phase. 608 line km of high density 2D seismic data was acquired on the northern portion of the San Leon operated Tarfaya License across the J North prospect. This adds to the existing 2,289 line km of existing 2D seismic across the licence. In total, San Leon currently has 12 leads and prospects across the Tarfaya license with net prospective resources of 711 million barrels of oil equivalent based on the Netherland, Sewell & Associates 2008 CPR. Several new adjacent leads have also been identified aroun d J North as a result of the new 2D seismic data. The new seismic data quality is significantly improved compared to previous 2D seismic data in the area as a result of longer offsets and higher density acquisition. The new data is currently being processed and interpreted by the Company in its Warsaw office. 1,674 km of 2D seismic data was acquired across the San Leon operated Zag License in Morocco. This is the first seismic data ever acquired across the Zag License. The combined Zag Basin aeromagnetic survey acquired in 2009 by San Leon and the adjacent license to the north was the basis for the layout of the 2D program. The Company is focusing on the Zag license for both conventional and unconventional oil and gas potential.  

Solo Oil PLC (LON:SOLO) and Joint Venture partner Reef Resources Limited today provided an operational update on activities in South Western Ontario, Canada. Significant progress has been made on various field activities associated with the ongoing development of the Ausable Field Gas Recycling and Enhanced Oil Recovery project. Highlights: The recently spudded North Airport #1 exploration well is progressing and is expected to reach intermediate casing point by mid-February and to reach TD at 608 metres by early March; the venturi pump has been successfully installed in the Ausable #5 well as planned and is being commissioned; In field flow-line construction to the Ausable #2 well is underway to allow that well to be connected to the venturi pump system; an additional pump skid is being constructed and is due to be delivered in February after which all four existing wells (A#1, 2, 4 and 5) will be hooked up to the central process ing facility. Well #3 will continue to be used for gas re-injection in the short term prior to a recompletion program which is planned to isolate the shallowest interval Ausable #1. This will allow gas re-injection in to the optimum zone at the highest point and geological centre of the Ausable reef.

Cairn Energy (LON:CNE) News that Statoil has farmed in to its Greenland block should provide further support for the Company’s shares, in the medium term at least, as it represents a welcome step towards appropriate risk management, especially as Greenland is a frontier region. In our view this further buoys the planned return of $3.5bn of proceeds from the sale of Cairn’s 40% interest in Cairn India to Vedanta; expected February 2012. Once this has been distributed, we would expect to see the shares to trade down by 50 to 60p. Operationally, we expect the company to continue to take appropriate steps to derisk its portfolio by farming down its interests in licences.   

Nautical Petroleum (LON:NPE) Management has disclosed that it has agreed the terms of a farm out deal with EnQuest on the development of Kraken, with the farminee carrying it for up to $240mm of the development costs; comprised of $150mm firm and $90mm contingent on 2P reserves size. In so doing, Nautical has derisked the Kraken development while ensuring that shareholders retain significant exposure to the economic benefits of its development, as well as providing it with flexibility in considering the options for the development of the remainder of its portfolio.

Oil Price. Oil prices appear to have stabilised at the $100/bbl level recently, helped no doubt by comments from Saudi Arabia that it believes that $100/bbl is a “fair price” for oil and that is not unduly impacting global growth. We believe, however, that the short to medium term outlook in the Middle East where there is a game of brinksmanship breaking out, will mean that there will be increasing pressure on oil prices to move higher. 

Mining News 

Allied Gold Mining Plc (LON:ALD) announced its activity report for the quarter ended 31 December 2011. Group production was 31 181 oz for 3 months and 108 388 ounces for the year. The company has stated guidance of 180,000 ounces pa production in 2012. The average realized gold price was US$1,695 per ounce, up 24% year on year. EBITDA was US$9.1 m for the December quarter. Gross cash costs for the year were US$979/oz for Simberi and US$1224 for Gold Ridge.

GGG Resources plc (LON:GGG) announced that its JV entity, Bullabulling Gold Limited has today executed an Option to Purchase Agreement to acquire 100% of the Geko Gold Project, located approximately 17km north of the Bullabulling Gold Project. Exploration drilling undertaken during the 1990s by Newcrest and others intersected gold mineralisation that can be correlated with the same sequence of lithologies which host the Bullabulling gold deposit. The key terms of the Sale and Purchase agreement are summarised as follows: Option Fee: $200,000, Option Period: six months from the date of the agreement, Purchase price: $3.0 million.

Lydian International Ltd. (UNDER REVIEW) (TSE:LYD) announced an updated resource estimate for its Amulsar gold project in Armenia. The updated resource comprises 68.2 Mt at 1.0 g/t Au (2.1 million ounces) of Indicated Category resources and 36.1 Mt at 0.9 g/t Au (1.1 million ounces) of Inferred Category resources based on a 0.40 g/t gold cut-off grade. The mineral resource estimate has been prepared in accordance with CIM guidelines (NI 43-101 compliant).

Serabi Gold plc (UNDER REVIEW) (LON:SRB) announced final independent laboratory analytical results from shallow extension drilling on the south-eastern strike extension of the Palito deposit. The programme was completed for a total of 8 holes and 937 m in October 2011. Significant assays include 0.72 m at 9.26 g/t Au, 0.90 m at 20.60 g/t Au, 1.36 m at 48.07 g/t Au, 0.57 m at 103.94 g/t Au. The Company also announced that it is at an advanced stage of raising up to approximately £2.7 million by way of a market placing of 27,050,000 Units with institutional shareholders at an indicative placing price of 10.0 pence per Unit. The net proceeds of the proposed placing will be used, in conjunction with the Company's existing cash balances to undertake a preliminary economic assessment on the viability of recommencing operations at Palito and provide additional working capital for the Company. 

Oilfield Services News 

Halliburton (Monitored Coverage) (NYSE:HAL) The group’s Q4 was broadly in line with market expectation with income from continuing operations at $911M or $1.00 per share

The outlook statement was generally positive. “In 2012, we expect revenue growth in excess of rig count growth in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. …. We believe that operators in North America will continue to focus on the development of their liquids-rich unconventional resource base resulting in robust demand for our services. …”

“We anticipate that Eastern Hemisphere margins will return to the mid- to high-teens at the end of 2012 as we gain traction on new projects while growing revenue at a higher rate than rig count growth. Our positive view of the market supports an increase in capital spending in 2012….”