Desire Petroleum (LON:DES) announced that that the 14/15-2 Rachel North well in the Falklands has reached a total depth of 3,052 metres and preliminary data collected has indicated that this well is an oil discovery.
The company has run an initial suite of wireline logs and this together with the drilling data indicate that the well encountered a 349 metres gross interval from 2,621 metres to 2,970 metres of sands and shales with hydrocarbons, of which 57 metres is net pay in multiple zones.
Desire now intends to complete the wireline logging and wireline sampling programme to obtain more information on the reservoir quality, the hydrocarbon saturations and the fluid type to assess the significance of this discovery.
Rockhopper Exploration (LON:RKH) holds a 7.5% working interest in the 14/15-2 Rachel North well.
Max Petroleum (LON:MXP) reported that it has continued to make significant progress in evaluating its post-salt inventory. The ocmpany said it is well positioned to execute on its pre-salt drilling programme during 2011.
The company has commenced drilling the SEKW-1 exploration well on the Sekir West prospect in Block A, the seventh of 13 post-salt exploration prospects scheduled to be drilled by the Company on Blocks A&E.
Solomon Gold (LON:SOLG) has announced results from its 100% owned projects in Queensland, Australia, which it said continue to support the targeted resource definition of 1 million ounce (Moz) gold equivalent as gold and silver.
Ascent Resources (LON:AST) has been advised by its drilling contractor, Crosco International, that the mobilisation of a rig has started for the Pg-11 evaluation well in the Petişovci-Lovaszi project area in Slovenia, and that they expect to commence drilling on or around 16 December 2010, subject to weather conditions.
JJB Sports (LON:JJB) said that since publication of its IMS on 11 November 2010, trading conditions have remained extremely challenging and like for like sales have remained below expectations. The company believes that this will be further exacerbated by current adverse weather conditions.
JJB said that the outlook for the full year remains uncertain.
Baltic Oil Terminals (LON:BTC) has entered into an agreement for the acquisition of Petroval Bunker International, a fuel oil storage business based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, from Petroval for US$10.8 million in cash.
Aurum Mining (LON:AUR) announced that the capital reduction process to return cash to Shareholders is now virtually completed following approval by the Court yesterday.
The quantum of the cash being returned to Shareholders is £7.72 million.
Marston’s (LON:MARS) reported preliminary results for the period to 2 October. Group revenue rose 0.9% to £650.7 million, while pre-tax profits climbed 4.6% to £73.5 million.
Ithaca Energy (LON:IAE) announced that the contracts for the installation of subsea equipment and the installation of the FPSO mooring system for the Athena development has been awarded to Bibby Offshore Limited.