On the week where Brent crude fell below US$40 a barrel, there was a few corporate smatterings and UK project Horse Hill was once again in the frame.
Angus Energy this week confirmed plans for a stock market listing expected in late December.
Angus will then join fellow Horse Hill stakeholders UK Oil & Gas(LON:UKOG), Solo Oil (LON:SOLO), Doriemus (LON:DOR), Stellar Resources (LON:STG), Evocutis (LON:EVO) and Alba Minerals (LON:ALBA) in the ranks of listed companies.
The play comprises a fairly straightforward convention oil discovery, estimated to contain some 21mln barrels of oil, as well as a deeper and much more complicated ‘hybrid’ play upon which large blue-sky estimates are based.
Angus has an 11.5% interest in the Horse Hill project, as well as other interests in the Weald basin in southern England.
UKOG is already a shareholder with 5% in Angus, which is run by executive chairman Jonathan Eldred Tidswell-Pretorius (who himself owns 32.9% of the company) and managing director Paul Abram Vonk.
Angus has yet to confirm if it will be raising new equity through its AIM listing, or how much it might raise.
Elsewhere, Europa Oil & Gas (LON:EOG) has indicated a high level of industry interest in its Irish offshore venture, ahead of opening its data-room to potential partners in January.
The company said the data-room would open on January 11 and already slots for January and February are almost fully booked.
“The response we are getting from major and mid-cap companies is highly encouraging,” said chief executive Hugh Mackay.
Elsewhere, Independent Oil & Gas (LON:IOG) agreed an additional loan, of £800,000, from London Oil & Gas which is one of the two parties to fund the Skipper appraisal well.
London Oil & Gas last week agreed to lend the company £2.75mln of a total £4.75mln debt financing.
The additional £800,000 will be invested in the IOG’s gas assets in the Southern North Sea, as well as providing additional contingency for the Skipper programme and support working capital. It is on the same terms as last week’s loan agreement, i.e. interest of 9% per annum and repayable by December 30.
In other news, Rose Petroleum (LON:ROSE) chief Matthew Idiens said drilling a single self-funded well in the current oil price environment is ‘ill advised’ as he revealed the company had sufficient funds to ride out the current storm in the sector.
The Utah-focused junior has two projects targeting respectively the Mancos formation and the Paradox Basin, that in any other pricing environment would be seen has highly prospective.
On both it is travelling at the speed allowed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the federal body in charge of permitting.