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Proactive Oil & Gas highlights: Shell, Providence, Solo,Union Jack...

Published: 09:30 30 Jan 2016 GMT

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Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSB) shareholders have backed its controversial £35.6bn merger with gas explorer and producer BG Group (LON:BG.).

Shell said investors had cast just over 83.1% of total votes in favour of the deal, with about 16.9% against.

Standard Life Investments was one of the prominent shareholders to vote against, saying it believed the deal was no longer viable in the light of falling oil prices.

And on Thursday, BG shareholders also gave their seal of approval.

In the small cap sector, on Friday, Providence Resources (LON:PVR) has provided details of the Ruadhan prospect, which is now seen as an opportunity to find additional resources near the Spanish Point discovery.

Cairn Energy, as the operator of Spanish Point, had previously intended to drill a well in 2015 but amid weak oil prices the project was put back until next year.

Ruadhan is a separate project, located in an adjacent exploration area. It was the subject of a 3D seismic survey in 2014, and subsequent analysis of the data has confirmed it as a Base Cretaceous level structure which covers some 36 square kilometres.

Solo Oil (LON:SOLO) shares advance around 9% on Thursday with the news of a potentially major resource within a new project on the Isle of Wight.

The AIM quoted company has a 30% stake in the UK Oil & Gas (LON:UKOG) operated venture, which was offered the new licence in December.

UKOG this morning told investors that a new petrophysical analysis of the Arreton prospect, which was drilled by British Gas in 1974, has shown it to be an undeveloped discovery.

Across a number of reservoir intervals – called the Purbeck, Portland and the Inferior Oolite limestone - the project is now estimated to host some 219mln barrels of oil-in-place, with around 10.2mln currently deemed ‘recoverable’.

On Tuesday, Union Jack Oil (LON:UJO) has deepened its partnership with Egdon Resources (LON:EOG)  in onshore UK by taking a stake in the Laughton prospect in the East Midlands.

It follows on from the success of the Wressle discovery, where Union Jack has 8.3% of the Egdon led project where production is expected in the near future.

Laughton marks the sixth of Egdon’s onshore UK oil projects that Union Jack has partnered into, all of which involve Egdon and typically have active programmes either ongoing or upcoming.

Independent Oil & Gas (LON:IOG) has been granted permission to delay its planned appraisal well at the Skipper discovery, in the North Sea.

Following its recently announced change of plans for Skipper, it has today confirmed that the UK Oil & Gas Authority (OGA) has been formally extended to December 31 2016.

The company also repeated that it intends to obligatory drill the well “as soon as economic conditions allow”.

Victoria Oil & Gas (LON:VOG) expects to increase gas supply to customers around the Cameroon city of Douala by 30% in 2016 and drill two new wells on the Logbaba field.

Subsidiary Gaz Du Cameroun operates and has a 60% stake in Logbaba, from which it has started to supply gas to business customers in and around Cameroon’s rapidly growing second city.

Production is currently running at 15mmscf/d and a 'primary objective' in 2016 is to exceed 3.7 Bcf of annual production, a 30% increase over 2015.

Sound Energy (LON:SOU)  has agreed terms to take a 75% stake in the Sidi Moktar onshore licences in Morocco.

The company has now agreed to buy the 50% operated interest owned by PetroMaroc after it acquired a 25% stake from Maghreb Petroleum earlier this month.

Sidi Moktar is a huge 2,700 sg lm prospect in the Essaouira basin, central Morocco and contains a material existing gas discovery in the Lower Liassic formation called Kechoula.

Two wells have already been drilled at Kechoula and a near term extended well test is awaited prior to expected commercial production.

Kechoula has an estimated unrisked 293 Bscf of gas with an further 1 Trn cf potentially.

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