Oilman Jim

Bank holiday weekend, so a short list of the more important oil company announcements last week for further research: Fundraisings BPC ECHO ZEN FRR Drill Results EME FRR SDX Well Spuds BLVN SENX Licences Awarded I3E CLNR IOG RBD FPM SQZ UOG PMG Contact me on Twitter @Oilman_Jim Click "SUBSCRIBE" to receive posts by email The author holds one or more investments in one or more of the companies mentioned so this post cannot be viewed as independent research.  This post does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell and may be incorrect or outdated.

There was a decent flow of news releases last week and several in particular caught the eye.   Petro Matad (MATD) kicked off with the bad news that the spud of Snow Leopard-1 had been delayed until July, balanced by the good news that the resource potential of the Wild Horse prospect had been upgraded from 290 million barrels of oil to 490 million barrels of oil, plus an attractive new prospect, Fox, with 200 million barrels of oil had been mapped.   Falcon Oil & Gas (FOG) announced four additional potential plays in the Beetaloo Basin, Australia, providing it with a diversified portfolio of material, multi-TCF plays. SDX Energy (SDX) announced that the Ibn Yunus-1X discovery had successfully flowed natural gas at a stabilised  rate of 39.3 million cubic feet of gas per day, equivalent to 6,550 barrels of oil per day.   Echo Energy (ECHO) also announced a gas discovery at ELM-1004, but testing is awaited. Reabold Resources (RBD) , Upland Resources (UP...

The week got off to a good start with SDX Energy (SDX) announcing a gas discovery at the LMS-1 well and the spud of the Kelvin-1X exploration well, targeting 150 BCF of prospective resources in Morocco.  The shares continue to move higher.   Savannah Petroleum (SAVP) announced the spud of its second well, the Amdigh-1 in Niger.  Its shares are now starting to firm up a little, but remain well down on the 35p placing price, due to the vast number issued to acquire the Seven Energy assets. Amongst the US operators, Empyrean Energy (EME) announced commercial gas flows at last from Dempsey, Highlands Natural Resources (HNR) announced the spudding of its sixth and seventh shale wells at East Denver, Nostra Terra Oil & Gas (NTOG) announced the spud of its third well in the Permian Basin and Mayan Energy (MYN) announced it is now producing 137 net barrels of oil per day. In Georgia, Frontera Resources (FRR) announced its T-45 well now is flowing at the rate of ...

The week started with Chariot Oil & Gas (CHAR) announcing a dry hole offshore Morocco and the shares crashed down to around 8p, compared with a recent placing/open offer price of 13p. All is not lost, however, and next up is the Prospect S exploration well in Namibia with a spud date of October this year being talked about.  This is a much more important well to Chariot than Morocco, with a gross mean prospective resource of 459 million barrels of oil and a 65% CHAR interest.  Chariot is fully funded to drill this well. 88 Energy (88E) raised A$17 million in an oversubscribed placing.  Now it will reopen the Icewine-2 well this month to see if it can flow more than the 2 mcd/d (around $5 a day of gas) that it achieved last year.   Echo Energy (ECHO) announced that its rig will arrive soon for the four well exploration drilling campaign in Argentina.  The results from these two will be fascinating. Andalas Energy and Power (ADL) announced it is a...

It was fairly quiet on the oil company news front last week.   Cluff Natural Resources (CLNR) which I mentioned last Sunday moved up sharply though and on Friday Mr Michael Spencer notified that he had bought more and now held 9.17%. "Cornerstone Investor", Continental Investment Partners, notified they were disposing of 69% of their shareholding in Coro Energy (CORO) and 72% of their shareholding in Sound Energy (SOU) .  Sound CEO, James Parsons, joined in and entered into a "trading plan" to sell around half of his current shareholding.  These announcements followed the news earlier in the day of what was perceived as a disappointing CPR for SOU's forthcoming Morocco well and the shares fell sharply. SDX Energy (SDX)  continued to re-rate and positive news flow kept on last week with announcements of an o il discovery at the Rabul 4 Well in Egypt encountering approximately 43 feet of net heavy oil pay and the s pud of the LMS-1 explor...

There was plenty of oil company news last week, much of it quite interesting.   President Energy (PPC) announced a s ix-eight well workover programme at Puesto Flores in Argentina to commence during May 2018 to be followed by an a ccelerated three well drilling programme also at Puesto Flores which is now being planned to commence in Q3 2018 with the applications for surface permits underway. Amerisur Resources (AMER) , another South America producer and explorer, announced significant revenue growth of 96% to $92.5 million with an adjusted EBITDA of $19.8 million, up from $0.4 million. Amerisur has u p to 14 fully funded exploration and development wells planned for 2018. Columbus Energy Resources (CERP) announced the potential acquisition of the remaining 50% interest in the Icacos field in Trinidad from Touchstone Exploration (TXP) . This will give Columbus 100% operational control over a large area (approximately 8,700 acres) in the South West Peninsula, which include...

Some took issue with my comment last week that United Oil & Gas (UOG) looked expensive compared to Europa Oil & Gas (EOG) .  They seem to be forgetting that the 15p Optiva Securities valuation for UOG is assuming drilling and development success across all their participations.  Optiva are not saying that is what UOG is worth now!  UOG have been successful with their participation in a development well (no geological risk) on the Podere Gallina exploration permit in Italy, however, that still faces the tortuous multi-year process of conversion into a production permit and, as yet, there are no actual spud dates for drilling on any of the other licences in which UOG is a participant.  I'm not saying there is anything wrong with UOG (although its shares are down 14% over the last week), just that there are much better value companies out there in my opinion. Back to the subject of Italy, Sound Energy (SOU) last week announced completion of the divestment ...