Investors in London were focused on the oil and gas sector this morning after Max Petroleum (LON:MXP) and San Leon Energy (LON:SLE) updated investors on their operations, while Sound Oil (LON:SOU) provided a funding update.
San Leon has spudded the Lelechów SL-1 well as part of its two well exploration programme at the Nova Sol concession in Poland. The well is expected to take less than 30 days to drill and evaluate.
The rig will then immediately move to drill Chesław-SL1, the second of the two wells.
The primary target of the wells is the Permian aged Main Dolomite formation targeting near term oil production.
Sector peer Max told investors that it will release the Saipem National 1625 DE rig drilling the NUR-1 well at the Emba B Prospect in Block E given the need to secure additional funding to complete this well.
Max said it will continue discussions with the Kazakh government to seek regulatory approval to allow completion of the drilling of NUR-1 beyond the existing deadline of 4 March next year.
The company is also considering options to separately finance the completion of NUR-1.
“Negotiations are also currently ongoing with debt and equity providers to provide financing to complete the company's post-salt exploration programme and underpin future appraisal and development drilling,” Max said today.
“When there is further progress with these negotiations the Company will update the market.”
Fellow Kazakhstan operating group Jupiter Energy (LON:JPRL) reported that trial production from the J-50 and J-52 wells reached 21,500 barrels of oil and all oil was pre-sold at US$400 per tonne.
The company has also secured approval to test the J-51 well and a 90 day production test is currently underway. Flow rates are currently around 600 barrels of oil per day.
Trial Production Licence applications for both the J-51 and J-53 wells are progressing.
Meanwhile, Sound has agreed a private placement through Astin Capital Management and plans to make an open offer to existing shareholders.
The company said that following the announcement of the encouraging results at the Jatayu well, the new funds will be used to finance continuing operations including probable testing and two other wells at Citarum.
The placing and open offer will also provide contingency funds for the Nervesa well and fund the development of Rapagnano and Casa Tiberi.
“Access to capital is a critical element of success for a pre-revenue oil/gas explorer and we are pleased to secure this new equity in difficult market conditions,” said chairman and CEO of Sound Gerry Orbell.
“This placement secures Sound Oil well into 2013, well beyond our near term operations.”
Another oil and gas company with new was Dragon Oil (LON:DGO), which said its partner in the Bargou exploration permit Cooper Energy has signed a letter of intent with Grup Servicii Petroliere over the rig contract for the jack-up rig "GPS Jupiter" to drill the Hammamet West-3 well offshore Tunisia.
Drilling is expected to begin between December this year and March 2013 depending on when the rig is released from its previous commitments.
Moving to the mining sector, EMED Mining (LON:EMED) told investors today that it is progressing strongly on all key fronts and that the start of production commissioning at the Rio Tinto copper mine in Spain is on target for end 2013.
Andalucian Government regulatory procedures continue on track with the key approvals of the project restart being processed during the current quarter, EMED added.
Baobab Resources (LON:BAO) updated investors on the metallurgical testwork at its 85 percent owned Tete pig iron, vanadium and titanium project.
Tests on samples from the Tenge block show that the iron ore can be upgraded to a concentrate of smelter-feed specification through low cost, coarse crushing and dry magnetic separation at a very high mass recovery and a total iron yield of 63 and 84 percent respectively.
“The key outcome of this test work is the potential to make significant savings in the start-up capex for the Tete Project,” said managing director of Baobab Ben James.
“The ability to smelt a much coarser concentrate also allows for a less complex beneficiation and pyro-metallurgical route than originally contemplated.”
In the meantime, Rambler Metals & Mining (LON:RMM) has sold the first lot of 600 tonnes of copper concentrate from its wholly owned Ming copper-gold mine in Cazana.
As of 16 July 2012, there are 1,700 tonnes of copper concentrate in storage at the Company's port warehouse facility. Lot 002 of 800 tonnes of copper concentrate is awaiting assays for invoicing and provisional payment.
“The realization of revenue from the sale of the first lot of copper concentrate is another important milestone for the company,” said president and CEO of Rambler George Ogilvie.
“While the fiscal 2013 budget is being finalized, we expect to provide guidelines on our fiscal targets after commercial production is declared.”
Staying with miners, Alecto Minerals (LON:ALO) has completed the 100 percent acquisition of the highly prospective Wayu Boda gold project in Ethiopia and Arian Silver (LON:AGQ) said its subsidiary is in dispute with the owner of the toll mill which is contracted to process ore from the trial mining operation at the San Jose mine in Mexico.
As a result, milling operations have been suspended and talks to recolve the dispute are currently underway.
In IT, Forbidden Technologies (LON:FBT) said its first FORscene Server Lite software client Pegasus Works is now using the new software in its corporate workflows.
“The use by Pegasus of FORscene for editing highlights its versatility and its growing role as a cloud video editing platform,” said chief executive of Forbidden Tech Stephen Streater.
“Supporting efficient video workflows, FORscene is an attractive option in a growing number of fast-turnaround professional sectors.”
Elsewhere in the markets, Sphere Medical (LON:SPHR) announced that its Pelorus 1500 diagnostic medical device has achieved CE Marking as an in-vitro diagnostic medical device. The CE mark enables the company to place the Pelorus 1500 for sale in all Member States within the European Economic Area.
“Obtaining the CE Mark for the Pelorus 1500 was a milestone we set down at the time of the IPO and we have achieved this on time and within budget,” said chief executive of Sphere Medical Stuart Hendry.
“We now intend to capitalise on the early interest being shown by a number of medical device companies and we are already working with a number of leading anaesthetists.”
Finally, agricultural bioscience company Plant Impact (LON:PIM) said its turnover for the year to end March reached £1.93 million compared with the £1.62 million reported for the previous financial year.
The increase in revenues results in a reduction of operating losses to £1.45 million from £2 million.
After the end of the year, the company’s BugOil product was registered by the US Environmental Protection Agency, while the company decided to relocate to Rothamsted Research.
“In this new financial year...the management will dedicate full attention to building on our success in Northern Europe and generating secure business 'close to home',” said chief executiveof Plant Impact John Brubaker.
“We aim to begin expansion in the Southern Hemisphere from the spring-board of good performance data in soya and dry beans in Brazil.
“On the R&D front, we will begin work on the next generation of our current products and gain valuable on-farm insight for the Alethea platform.”