Gulf Keystone Petrol (LON:GKP) said it believes that there could be as much as 2.2 billion barrels of shallow oil resources in the Shaikan field. The company has now completed the Shaikan-3 well in Northern Iraq. The well follows up the initial Shaikan-1 well, which propelled Gulf Keystone to become one of the most talked about, and invested in, stocks on London’s AIM market.
Desire Petroleum PLC (LON:DES) appointed non-executive director Eddie Wisniewski as finance director.
Range Resources LTD (LON:RRL, ASX:RRS) received a price and volume query from the Australian Securities Exchange after an 11 percent jump in its share price during Sydney trading. Range said it is not aware of any information that has not been announced which could explain the sudden interest, but did however state that it was "recently rated as a 'stock to watch' in 2011 in the UK, resulting in in significant interest and price movement in the UK."
HMV Group PLC (LON:HMV) reported that like-for like sales for the Christmas period plummeted due to the severe weather conditions. It plans to close a further 60 stores this year to cut costs.
Nostra Terra Oil & Gas Co (LON:NTOG) has decided to end its working relationship with privately-held Hewitt Petroleum (HPI). They had been working together to redevelop oil and gas assets in the Central Kansas Uplift (CKU), USA. However the project has not been as successful as initially hoped. Nostra Terra carried out a comprehensive review of the project after production levels failed to meet expectations – with just 1,239 barrels of oil produced over a three month period.
Next PLC (LON:NXT) said December’s Arctic blast cost the company £22 million in lost sales. Overall sales for the period from August 1 to December 24 were up 0.2 per cent. The high street stores showed a 6.1 percent fall in sales which was counteracted by an 8.7 percent rise revenues from the Next Directory business.
Mariana Resources (LON:MARL) said the results from its final drilling campaign of 2010 confirm the Calandria Sur prospect in Argentina as a bulk tonnage gold/silver deposit.
ECR Minerals (LON:ECR, OTC:MTGDY) has expanded its footprint in the Sierra de las Minas in Argentina, with a deal to acquire four exploitation concessions. The newly acquired area includes the El Abra historic gold mine which hosted a high grade, albeit small scale, mining operation.
Petroneft Resources’ (LON:PTR) year-end production reached 2,750 barrels of oil per day from 9 of 11 wells drilled. While the performance of the wells is good, production growth is being constrained by greater than expected formation damage resulting from the drilling and completion process. This issue will be overcome by the planned fracture stimulation programme.
Domino's Pizza (LON:DOM) reported a strong sales rise for the 13 weeks to Christmas and a near 12 percent likes for-like sales rise for the 2010 calendar year, however the stock’s gains were limited to below 1 percent.
Games Workshop Group (LON:GAW) announced that pre-tax profits in respect of the year to 29 May 2011 are likely to be below current market expectations.