Oilman Jim

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Challenges raising funds are now becoming apparent for lower calibre companies and managements.   UK Oil & Gas (UKOG) ’s recent open offer, aiming for £4.7 million, raised only £462,554, while Petro Matad (MATD) had to announce last week that it managed to raise only £76,000 of the $2 million hoped for.   The $9.7 million previously raised by MATD through a 3.5p placing and subscription had already come at a terrible price to shareholders, with the shares apparently “pre-sold” by insiders all the way from 8.8p down.   The price now is 2.9p. The fun and games continue at Block Energy (BLOE) , where a management previously unable to distinguish water from oil (that’s the innocent explanation) is trying to stop a shareholders’ resolution to commission an independent forensic investigation into the affairs of the company.   Among other things, the shareholders are looking for failures to disclose information to the market in a timely manner and inappropriate tradin...

Pantheon Resources (AIM PANR OTC PTHRF ) announced a management resource upgrade on its Shelf Margin Deltaic sequence encountered in the the Talitha #A well.   It estimates that the SMD-B zone has the potential to contain 2.6 billion barrels of oil in place and a P50 contingent resource (recoverable) of 404 million barrels of oil.   Analysis is not yet complete on the SMD-A and SMD-C zones, although it is anticipated that the SMD-A will experience a reduction, whereas the SMD-C is broadly in line with previous analysis.   Crucially, Pantheon confirmed that discussions have commenced with a number of groups for the purpose of seeking the farmout of a working interest percentage in one or more of its Alaskan projects, the aim being to complete a farmout or funding in the fourth quarter to provide sufficient capital for future drilling and testing.   PANR 's objective for winter 2021 / 22 is for an active work programme to test all zones of the Talitha #A well a...

Predator Oil & Gas (LSE PRD ) announced drilling results for the MOU-1 well.   Only gas shows, but evidence of thermogenic gas migration supports the pre-drill geological interpretation for a deep “gas kitchen” connected to shallower reservoirs by large faults and Predator will be proposing to its partner to drill the previously defined MOU-4 location later this year.   PRD has been covered in the private blog each week since December 2019 from as low as 1.3p and reached a high of 22.5p pre-spud.   i3 Energy (AIM I3E TSX ITE ) announced an Alberta acquisition plus a placing to finance it.   The company has signed a definitive agreement with Cenovus Energy to acquire petroleum and infrastructure assets within i3’s core area for a total consideration of $53.7 million.   Funding of £40 million ($55.4 million) has been raised at 11p per share.   The acquisition includes approximately 8,400 boepd of production, 79.5 mmboe of 2P reserves and an inventory...

Another exciting week for Hurricane Energy (AIM HUR OTC HRCXF ).   On Monday, the High Court refused to sanction the restructuring plan (the key court documents, which contain some fascinating information, are in the private blog) and the defeated Hurricane board continued to witter on about liquidation and risk of no value being returned to shareholders, further threatening that if the non-executive directors were removed at the meeting on 5 July, it was likely the NOMAD would resign with immediate effect and trading in the shares would be suspended.   By Wednesday, though, the HUR directors had started to accept the new reality and consented to board changes with immediate effect.   The share price had a strong week, more than doubling to 3.52p.   The restructuring plan valued the shares at less than 0.1p. i3 Energy ’s (AIM I3E TSX ITE ) board had better luck last week in the High Court, which approved the cancellation of the company’s share premium account, a...

Chariot (the old Chariot Oil & Gas) (AIM CHAR OTC OIGLF ) announced 2020 final results.   Loss for the year, after impairment of assets in Namibia and Brazil, was $70.6 million.   With the decks cleared, Chariot ’s main projects now are the Moroccan licences Lixus Offshore, containing the Anchois gas development, and the soon to be formally awarded Rissana Offshore, both with operatorship and 75% working interest.   Drilling at Anchois is planned for Q4 2021, targeting a total remaining recoverable resource in excess of 1 trillion cubic feet of gas.   More on CHAR in the private blog. Helium One (AIM HE1 OTC HLOGF ) announced the presence of  helium enriched gas in drilling mud while drilling Tai-1 at the Rukwa Project in Tanzania.   It’s not evidence of commerciality and evaluation will be required by wireline logging to confirm any potential pay zones, but it pleased the market and the share price had quite a strong week.   The best estimate...

The (highly profitable) wait is over for shareholders in   Predator Oil & Gas (LSE PRD ), which announced last Wednesday that the Star Valley Rig 101 is now under contract and is being mobilised to Guercif to drill the MOU-1 well.   Predator will issue a further update when drilling operations commence in the next day or two and, thereafter, drilling is estimated to take 14-20 days.   More on PRD in the private blog, where I’ve been covering it every week since December 2019 from as low as 1.3p.   It closed at 15.75p on Friday. Meanwhile, embracement of the energy transition continues apace.   Scirocco Energy (AIM SCIR ), owner of a 25% working interest in the Tanzanian Ruvuma gas project alongside Aminex (LSE AEX OTC AEXFF ) which owns a 25% carried interest in that venture, announced its proposed investment into Energy Acquisitions Group, the first investment as part of Scirocco 's revised strategy that targets opportunities within the energy tran...

It was an exciting week for Hurricane Energy (AIM HUR OTC HRCXF ) stakeholders, culminating in the announcement that 92.34% of the votes cast at the shareholder meeting were against the resolution to approve the restructuring plan.   Next up is the court hearing on 21 June, however, the extraordinary general meeting to change the board (resolutions for which are highly likely to be successful) is not until 5 July.   Meanwhile, the current board is sticking with its plan regardless of the shareholder vote and will ask the court to approve the restructuring and "cram down" the shareholders, forcing the plan upon them despite their vote against.   It all now depends whether the shareholder group, led by Crystal Amber Fund (AIM CRS ), can convince the court with an alternative plan.   More on HUR in the private blog. President Energy (AIM PPC OTC PPCGF ) announced the farm out of a 50% interest in their Pirity Concession, Paraguay, to “a substantial Northern Hemisp...

The board of Hurricane Energy (AIM HUR OTC HRCXF ) continues to taunt shareholders with warnings of their company’s imminent demise.   Latest was the announcement on Friday that the directors have resolved not to exercise the company’s option to extend the bareboat charter of the Aoka Mizu FPSO for a period of three years from June 2022 to June 2025.   The charter thus will expire in June 2022 and, should Hurricane be unable to agree an alternative extension for a shorter period, it may need to pursue a controlled wind-down of its business and cease operations at the Lancaster field upon the expiry of the charter in 2022, at which point the field would be decommissioned.   The share price is now 1.177p and as regular readers know I’ve been warning about HUR all the way from the low 30s down. Longboat Energy (AIM LBE ) at last announced its RTO - with three separate counterparties.   It’s acquiring a significant, near-term, low-risk exploration drilling programme...