Central Petroleum (ASX: CTP) director Andrew Whittle has picked up an additional 400,000 shares on the market for A$39,600, or A$0.099 per share.

The acquisition by his superannuation fund comes days after the company appointed former Queensland Gas Company managing director Richard Cottee as its chief executive officer.

Cottee, considered one of the early pioneers of Australia's coal seam gas industry, joined QGC in 2002 and guided the company, which had listed in 2000 with shares valued at A$0.20, into a major producer of coal seam gas in Queensland.

QGC was subsequently acquired by British Gas in 2008 for A$5.75 a share in cash.

Central is also putting into place appraisals of its Surprise-1 oil discovery, which has gone a long way in affirming its long held belief in the petroleum prospectivity of the Amadeus Basin, Northern Territory.

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Central Petroleum (ASX:CTP) has appointed ex Queensland Gas Company luminary Richard Cottee as chief executive officer and a director elect.

In a boost for the company, given his track record at QGC, Cottee is likely to focus on farm-out agreements that will fast track development.

In addition he will look to unlock the value of Central's large landholding, reputed to be one of the largest exploration acreage packages in Australia.   

Recently, Central's Surprise-1 well flowed oil to surface in the Northern Territory which was the first since the Mereenie oil field in the mid-1960s. It also might be the first Australian onshore horizontal well that has produced oil-to-surface.

The Surprise discovery had seen investors view Central's acreage in central Australia in a new light.

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Central Petroleum (ASX: CTP) has been served with the application and draft statement of claim by Petroleum Nominees seeking to overturn the company’s A$11 million placement.

Petroleum Nominees is seeking leave to pursue the claims on the company’s behalf.

Should this be granted, it plans to name chairman Dr Henry Askin; non-executive directors Richard Faull and William Dunmore; former managing director John Heugh; and the various entities that were part of the placement announced on 4 April as defendants.

Under the draft statement of claim, Petroleum Nominees is calling for the company to buy back the shares issued under the placement at the price paid for them and for Central to consider any proposal from Petroleum Nominees for the issue of shares as well as any other proposal and to elect members of the board.

Should this not be possible, Petroleum Nominees is claiming damages for breach of directors duties together with interest and costs.

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Central Petroleum (ASX: CTP) is investigating options to spin off its coal assets in the Pedirka Basin, Northern Territory, to maximise shareholder value.

The company said that while the assets had potential to be highly valuable, their poor market visibility thanks to its focus on oil and gas meant the market currently assigned little value to them.

It added that realising the value of the coal assets would require a dedicated focus that would likely be achieved only through a separate listing with its own board of directors, experienced coal management team and funding capabilities.

This would still provide Central shareholders with exposure to the coal assets through a retained equity interest.

It would also allow the company to focus on its core oil and gas assets.

Central’s coal stratigraphic drilling program had resulted in at least 1 well intersecting 75 metres of coal including a 18 metre coal seam while previous independent reports have estimated the total coal resources across its acreage at between 635 billion to 865 billion tonnes.

The company had previously said it planned to explore and develop its coal assets in joint venture with partners managing and funding 100% of exploration and bankable feasibility studies before funding its participating interest at the project funding stage.

It added that it had received interest from various groups about its Pedirka coal assets with coal mining and beneficiation; coals to liquids; and underground coal gasificiation options raised as possible commercialisation options.

Further details of the coal restructure will be provided to the market in the near future.

Central Petroleum (ASX: CTP) has been granted a trading halt by the ASX ahead of an announcement relating to Petroleum Nominees Pty Ltd’s start of legal proceedings on 11 April 2012.

Petroleum Nominees attempt to place an injunction on the company’s A$11 million placement was dismissed by the Supreme Court of Queensland.

The court also ordered Petroleum Nominees to file and serve an application for leave under section 237 of the Corporations Act and for further directions. Should leave be granted, it should then serve Central Petroleum a draft statement of claim setting out both the claims it makes on its own behalf in the proceeding and the claims it seeks to pursue on the company's behalf.

Central’s shares will remain in pre-open until the earlier of an announcement to the market or the commencement of trading on Monday 30 April.

Meanwhile, the company had on Tuesday 24 April said that a request by shareholders representing 6.38% of its total shareholding to hold a general meeting for the replacement of three of the company’s directors – chairman Dr Henry Askin and non-executive directors Richard Faull and William Dunmore – was valid and that it would seek to convene a general meeting.

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Central Petroleum (ASX: CTP) has appointed 2 experienced petroleum executives, Andrew Whittle and Bruce Elsholz, as directors of the company.

Whittle has over 42 years of technical and managerial experience in the petroleum exploration and production sector and is deemed an expert in the Otway Basin.

He was closely involved in the exploration that led to the identification and discovery of the Thylacine gas field in the Otway Basin as well as promoting Pexco into Indonesian deepwater exploration.

Whittle spent 21 years with several affiliates of ExxonMobil in Australia with his final post as geological manager for Esso Australia before leaving to spend 5 years as exploration manager for GFR Resources.

He also has over 15 years experience through PetroVal Australia, of which he is a founding director, and his private consulting company Sheristowe.

Whittle is also a director of Bass Strait Oil and Malaysia’s Bumi Armada Sdn Bhd.

Elsholz is a chartered accountant with about 35 years experience in the upstream oil and gas sector. 

He has held senior financial and commercial roles with a number of exploration and production companies in Australia and Canada. These include Hudsons Bay Oil and Gas Company, Hartogen Energy Limited, Command Petroleum Limited, Coplex Resources NL and Otto Energy Limited. 

He also has more than ten years experience as Company Secretary with a number of ASX listed entities.

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Central Petroleum (ASX: CTP) has confirmed that it has received an unprecedented amount of genuine interest from potential farm-in partners for its massive acreage across central Australia and is currently carrying out several negotiations.

Company chairman Dr Henry Askin said in a letter to shareholders that while it was eager to finalise farm-in agreements for some of its acreage, it would not proceed with any agreement that undervalued its potential.

It added that this potential was now being recognised by the international oil and gas industry following the Surprise oil discovery in the Amadeus Basin, Northern Territory and that the size of its acreage meant that it was well placed to capitalise on current market opportunities.

Central had previously stated that it would accelerate and promote farm-in opportunities to spread and reduce risk.

Exploration

Askin added the company is now planning to shoot 3D and 2D seismic over the Surprise structure in EP 115 from the middle of next month with processing of the 3D seismic expected to be completed by early August.

This will be followed by the start of the extended production test for the Surprise-1 well, which is also expected to occur in May.

The Surprise-1 horizontal well flowed light sweet crude at a maximum sustained rate of 380 barrels per day (bpd) with low water cut, marking the first major onshore oil flow in the Northern Territory in nearly 50 years.

It has served to validate Central's long-standing belief in the petroleum prospectivity of central Australia and upgrades the commercial oil potential of its large Western Amadeus Basin acreage.

At sustained production rates of about 300bpd, Surprise-1 could generate revenue of US$1.16 million (A$1.12 million) per month at current Tapis spot oil prices of about US$129 per barrel.

Further appraisal of the discovery would allow Central to delineate its extant and determine its productivity and resources present, which RPS Energy had previously placed at between 0.5 and 2 million barrels of in-place oil.

Central noted it was working on a 40 kilometre shortcut access road from the well to the main Kintore bypass road, which the company and the Northern Territory State Government were working on improving into an all weather road.

The company added the recent settlement of an A$11 million institutional placement meant it was funded through the planned appraisal work at Surprise as well as properly assessing and finalising ongoing farm-in discussions.

On the company’s dismissal of former managing director John Heugh, Askin said the decision was not taken lightly by the board and was only pursued after other options had been explored.

Central added that while it would vigorously defend itself against Heugh’s legal proceedings disputing the termination of his employment, its legal and company secretarial teams was handling this issue with very minimal interference on its normal exploration and development activities.

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The share price hike was accompanied by a massive increase in volume with more than 40 million shares trading hands today compared with just 2.7 million yesterday.

Central noted that a number of other ASX listed peers with unconventional acreage had also seen increased market interest.

This added interest combined with its discussions with potential farm-in partners and its large acreage position in the Northern Territory that is prospective for unconventional oil and gas could have fuelled the share spike.

Central had last month raised A$9.9 million to fund appraisal of its successful Surprise-1 oil discovery in the Amadeus Basin.

Production testing is scheduled to start in April and the company will finalise details of the 3D seismic and further drilling soon.

The company is also evaluating its options for the lifting, transportation and sale of the oil produced during the test, which could last for up to six months or more pending flow stabilisation and a possible application for a production licence.

An engineering report by RPS Energy had indicated Surprise-1 could access initial in-place oil of 0.5 and 2 million barrels with further upside likely if its investigation into the unconventional shale oil and gas potential of the Horn Valley Siltstone bears fruit.

With the Hunt Rig 3, which was originally commissioned to drill up to 3 wells, stacked on site, any appraisal wells the company decides on can be drilled without having to wait for a rig.