Oilman Jim

It was a busy week, with a number of interesting announcements.  After a suspension in Australia, 88 Energy (88E) completed a £2.6 million placing at 1.1p.  They also confirmed earlier in the week that Charlie-1 is proceeding as planned ahead of the scheduled February 2020 spud date, permitting of the Yukon acreage is underway ahead of potential drilling in 2021, subject to farm-out, and the JV partners plan to conduct a formal farm-out process to fund further appraisal of Project Icewine Unconventional.  Notwithstanding the 1.1p placing, the share price remained relatively resilient, trading around 1.3p, substantially above the previous 0.7p placing price around which I mentioned it as a favourite several times towards the end of last year. 88E’s previous drilling partner,  Red Emperor Resources (RMP) issued its quarterly report.  RMP continued to conduct due diligence on a number of potential projects and, at the end of the quarter, had cash o...

It's been an interesting week and some of the shares I mentioned last weekend performed strongly.  RockRose Energy (RRE) traded at nearly £23 a share, up from just under £20 the previous Friday and Tower Resources (TRP) traded at nearly 0.8p on Tuesday up from just over 0.5p.  I said a couple of times towards the end of last year that Tower was a good buying opportunity under 0.4p.   Both issued news.  RockRose announced the change of operatorship of the Brae Area, although they point out it is of no strategic or financial consequence.  An alternative take is expressed in Saturday’s Energy Voice article.  Tower Resources announced a Cameroon operational update, they’ve been granted a further extension of the production sharing contract until 19 September this year.  All now hinges on whether they can negotiate a farm out. On that subject, United Oil & Gas (UOG) has no takers for its Jamaica farm-out of what they describe as a "super wil...

First full week of the New Year and plenty going on.   Rockhopper Exploration (RKH)  announced Heads of Terms with Navitas to farm-in to Sea Lion.  This adds additional strength to the Sea Lion joint venture, which Rockhopper believes will increase the likelihood of a successful senior debt project financing for the Sea Lion Phase 1 development.  Key of course will be the local political situation. Sea Lion JV partner  Premier Oil (PMO)  announced its trading and operations update.  2019 production was 78,400 boepd.  It's also looking forward to drilling its first well in Alaska, which it describes as "potentially transformational" for Premier, whose own interest comes via a farm out from  88 Energy (88E) , which incidentally is now up 100% from when I mentioned it as a favourite towards the end of last year.   Premier also announced proposed UK North Sea acquisitions, which will add around 23,000 boepd p...

It was pleasing to see Petrel Resources (PET) end up as top performing share of the year, closing on 31 December at 15.5p.  PET was highlighted as a favourite in the blog several times last year around 1p. The New Year has got off to an interesting start.   I3 Energy (I3E) announced a corporate and funding update: it's now preparing for a mid-2020 appraisal programme to delineate the fields which the Company believes could contain more than 600 million barrels of oil in place P50.  It says that it is simultaneously conducting a farm-down process of its licences to potentially fund the 2020 drilling campaign and will continue working with its senior lenders on a development facility for its assets.  Important to remember that future drilling remains entirely subject to funding, which may not be as forthcoming and on as attractive terms as last time.  Unfortunately, a lot of investors (institutional and retail) don't trust this company a...