In a market where the year-to-date share price performance in the Canadian-listed, international oil and gas sector yielded some less-than-stellar results, there were some standout performers in both the mega-cap and small-to-mid-cap segments.
In the $200 million to $1 billion market cap range, the Total year-to-date return was a 7.2% decline. The top three performers, however, well topped this. Tethys Petroleum (TSE:TPL), the number one performer in the smaller cap sector, yielded a whopping 28.8% return from the start of the year to July 15, while Falcon Oil & Gas (CVE:FO) recorded a 19.4% return, and WesternZagros (CVE:WZR) showed a close 19.3% rise in its share price.
Tethys is riding a high after wrapping up its farm-out deal with French major Total and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) in Tajikistan, with the block having more potential than the entire UK North Sea, according to executive chairman Dr. David Robson, who spoke to Proactive Investors in late June just after the announcement. “Based on an independent resource report and the current gas consumption of China, there is enough gas there to supply the Chinese market for around 24 years, assuming gas demand doesn’t increase,” said Dr. Robson. The Central-Asian company is also counting on expanding existing production from Kazakhstan, where it just announced a busy program for the second half of this year, expected to cost over US$25 million.
Falcon Oil & Gas, meanwhile, completed a dual listing on the AIM market in March with a US$25.7mln funding, with the funds thought to be sufficient for two years' worth of work, in which the company will advance its key assets in Hungary, Australia and South Africa. The bulk of the programs will, however, be supported by Falcon’s major partners, which include Chevron (in South Africa) and Gazprom (in Hungary).
WesternZagros Resources, a Canadian oil and gas company with operations in Iraqi Kurdistan that just closed about $100 million in financings, reported as recently as late May a 33 per cent increase in its cash position at the end of the first quarter as proven resources and output potential continue to improve. Through an aggressive program, the company has increased its Total combined mean estimate of gross unrisked contingent resources at the Kurdamir and Garmian blocks to 974 million barrels of oil equivalent and the Total mean estimate of gross unrisked prospective resources to 4.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent. This year so far, the company has spud an appraisal well on one of its major discoveries and has spud the first well of a planned three-well shallow drilling program and is preparing to spud two more exploration wells.
At the other end of the spectrum in the same category, the biggest losers as of July 15 were Egypt and Yemen-focused TransGlobe Energy (TSE:TGL), with a 33.1% decline, and Argentina-focused Americas Petrogas(CVE:BOE), with a 69.7% drop.
In the above $1 billion market cap category, Gran Tierra Energy (TSE:GTE) outperformed with an 18% year-to-date return, as did Talisman Energy (TSE:TLM), with a 5.8% gain. Pacific Rubiales (TSE:PRE) and Coastal Energy(TSE:CEN) were the biggest decliners in this range, showing 13.2% and 20.6% drops, respectively, for the six months so far this year. This compares with a Total 2.1% fall for the eight companies listed in the mega-cap category.