The Smallcap Oil & Gas round up.

Antrim Energy (LON: AEY)
Received consent from the Irish Government for the transfer of interest and operatorship for its Licensing Option 11/5 (Antrim 100%) in the Porcupine Basin offshore Ireland’s west coast. Kosmos Energy Ltd. acquires 75% interest and operatorship in the Licensing Option in exchange for carrying the full costs of a planned 3D seismic programme within the licence area and re-imbursement to Antrim of a portion of the exploration costs incurred on the blocks to date. Antrim retains 25% interest.

Chariot Oil & Gas (LON: CHAR)
Has, subject to final contract, been successful in its bids for a 100% interest and operatorship in four shallow-water exploration licences, BAR-M292, BAR-M-293, BAR-M-313 and BAR-M-314, in the Barreirinhas basin, offshore Brazil. The acreage position of the combined licences totals 768km2 and the blocks are located 70km offshore in water depths ranging from 85m to 1,700m. The award of these licences is subject to the signature of a concession agreement between Chariot and the Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuel (ANP).

Enegi Oil (LON: ENEG)
Dominic Minty has purchased 3,000,000 ordinary shares in the Company from RMRI Plc, which is part of the RMRI group of companies controlled by Alan Minty, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Enegi. The purchase has been made at average price of £0.10p and has been undertaken in an Over the Counter Transaction. Alan Minty has not changed any of his own shareholding and his interest in the Company in his own right and through related parties following this transaction is 12,370,288 shares, representing 9.37 per cent of the Company’s issued share capital.

Europa Oil & Gas (LON: EUR)
Announces that Irish Government consent has been received for the transfer of interest and operatorship for its two Licensing Options LO 11/7 and LO 11/8, which cover approximately 2,000 sq km in the highly prospective South Porcupine Basin in the Irish Atlantic Margin, to a subsidiary of the independent oil and gas exploration and production company Kosmos Energy. Kosmos now holds an 85% interest in, and has assumed operatorship of, both Licences with Europa holding the remaining 15%. As announced on 18 April 2013, under the terms of the farm-in Kosmos will fully fund the costs of a 3-D seismic programme on each Licence and pay 85% of costs incurred by Europa to
date.

Fortune Oil (LON: FTO)
Released an interim management statement today. If you want to read it click HERE FTO focus primarily on Chinese oil, natural gas and resource supply operations and investments. Fortune Oil is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Ithaca Energy. (LON: IAE)
Announces the execution of a farm-out transaction with Shell UK in respect of the UK exploration assets acquired pursuant to the acquisition of Valiant Petroleum , completed on 19 April 2013. The Company has now substantially reduced its exposure to all remaining firm UK exploration well expenditure commitments transferred as part of the Acquisition. The Company also confirms the commencement of the Norvarg appraisal well, operated by TOTAL E&P Norge, in PL535 located in the Barents Sea. Since the announcement of the Acquisition, the Company has reduced its net exploration expenditure commitments by over $45 million. This leaves approximately $30 million of remaining committed UK exploration expenditure, mainly consisting of the Handcross well. The costs of the committed exploration & appraisal wells transferred to Ithaca as a result of the Acquisition were accounted for in the price paid for Valiant, with no exploration success assumed from those wells. Ithaca will continue to pursue farm-outs and divestments of the existing UK exploration license interests to further minimise exploration expenditure, whilst continuing to be exposed to the potential upside associated with several high impact wells.

Madagascar Oil & Gas (LON: MOIL)
Released their full year results and an Operational update. Much too long for inclusion in the Smallcap Oil & Gas round up. Click HERE to read them.

Magnolia Petroleum (LON: MAGP)
Good old Rita announced that MAGP has raised £1.5 million via the issue of 58,800,000 new ordinary shares in the Company at a price of 2.5 pence per share. Now call me a cynic but could this placing be the reason why Rita has been firing off ebullient RNS’s over the last month or so? Rita, Rita I see you.

Matra Petroleum (LON: MTA)
Released the management’s internal Resource estimate for the 100% owned Sokolovskoe oil field in Orenburg, Russia, based on the results of the recently competed seismic surveys. 3D seismic data interpretation identified that the Aphoninsky reservoir of the Sokolovskoye field splits into four separate domes within the boundaries of the license area from south-west to north-east. The integration of well data (A-12, A-13) with the recently interpreted 3D seismic data has resulted in an internal reclassification of Resources of the field. Management’s Resources estimates are 1P 28.255 Million barrels. 2P 50.152 Million barrels. 3P 90.856 Million barrels. Commenting on the announcement, Chief Executive of Matra Maxim Barskiy said: “Today’s announcement is an important step towards further demonstrating the significant potential of the Sokolovskoye field. We are now assessing the best way of realizing the value of the field for all shareholders and will give our recommendation in due course.” Members of the BMD site already know that we suspect funding/placing is being sought.

Max Petroleum (LON: MXP)
Yet another drilling up. We get one almost every week from MXP! This week MXP announces that the ZMA-E6 development well in the Zhana Makat Field has successfully reached a total depth of 897 metres, encountering hydrocarbons in Jurassic sandstone reservoirs in line with expectations. The Company plans to complete the well and then place it on production as soon as practicable. The Zhanros ZJ-20 rig will now move to drill the UTS-5 exploration well in the Uytas North Prospect on Block A, targeting resource potential of 11 million barrels of oil with a current geological chance of success of 24%.

Petroceltic International (LON: PCI)
Updated on its farm-out of an equity interest in the Isarene permit, Algeria, and the proposed share consolidation and introduction to the Official Lists of the UK Listing Authority and Irish Stock Exchange. The Company is close to reaching a binding agreement with a second farm in partner for the divestment of a further 18.375% interest. The process is substantially complete, but still subject to partner and regulatory approvals which could take several months. During these discussions, it has become evident that the Algerian regulatory approvals process and completion of the farm-out could be impacted by the additional documentation and shareholder approval requirements for Petroceltic which would be required following Listing. The Company has decided that it is in shareholders’ interests to seek to complete the farm-out prior to the Listing. Accordingly, the Company intends to postpone the Listing to allow the regulatory process in Algeria to proceed. Further details on the farm-out will be provided in due course as appropriate upon the regulatory and farm out processes being completed. In the meantime, the Company intends to proceed with its proposed share consolidation as announced although it will no longer proceed with the restructuring through the Scheme of Arrangement at this time. All other resolutions at the Company’s forthcoming Annual General Meeting on 30 May 2013 remain unaffected.

Range Resources (LON: RRL)
Released a short Guatemala Update this week. Attention to the announcement released by Citation Resources Limited (ASX: CTR) on the current flow testing program on the Atzam #4 well (in which Range has an indirect attributable interest of 24%). Citation Resources has announced that following a technical review program on the Atzam#4 well undertaken with Schlumberger, flow testing of the C13 and C14 carbonate sections of the well is expected to commence within 2 weeks. Hooray! Range also released a Trinidad update; much to long for the Smallcap round up but you can read it by clicking HERE

San Leon (LON: SLE)
The specialist oil and gas company with an extensive portfolio of assets across Europe and North Africa, noted the Interim Management Statement announced by Cairn Energy (LON: CNE), particularly in relation to the Foum Draa block, offshore Morocco. As announced on 31 January 2013, San Leon now holds a net operated interest of 14.17% and the gross mean prospective resource of the targeted prospect in the Foum Draa blocks is 142 mmbbls with a potential follow-up prospect of 126 mmbbls. Preparations are underway to drill the first well, which is expected to commence later this year subject to necessary approvals.

Solo Oil (LON: SOLO)
Raised £1.5 million gross proceeds through the issue of 375 million new ordinary shares of 0.01p each in the Company at a price of 0.4 pence per share to one institutional investor together with one warrant for every allocated Placing Share subscribed, each warrant entitling the holder to subscribe for one ordinary share in the Company at 0.4 pence per ordinary share with an exercise period of six months from Admission.

Sound Oil (LON: SOU)
First gas came this week as the Italian focused upstream oil and gas company, announces gas being delivered from the onshore Rapagnano field to the local gas distributor on 15 May 2013. The initial production rate was 14,600 Scmd (0.50 MMscfd).

Xcite Energy (LON: XEL)
Posted their “Results of Annual and Special Meeting and Chairman’s Opening Remarks” The statement was long winded but deserves your attention.

“2012 saw the safe and successful conclusion of the pre-production well test on the Bentley Field, which concluded in mid-September. This was a very significant achievement, for a company of our size, to manage a $250 million offshore work programme safely, on budget and on time, over a 10 month period. We produced 150,000 barrels of Bentley crude, blended it offshore and successfully sold it through our marketing partner, BP. We also captured significant quantities of data over the course of the test, which has provided the evidence to update our reserves report so comprehensively and given us a high degree of confidence in the new Field Development Plan for Bentley. From any perspective, this is something of which we can be very proud.

The real impact of the 2012 well test is an increase in confidence in how the field might be developed. The test encompassed all aspects from drilling, through processing and flow assurance, to blending and offtake to market. We have been able to implement all the lessons learnt into a more robust and efficient Field Development Plan. The months of analysis and modelling following the well test, together with the interpretation of our new 3D seismic over Bentley, have resulted in far greater certainty in the field and its development plan, as evidenced by the recent and substantial increase in recoverable reserves and asset value. Our 2P Reserves for Bentley now stand at 250 million barrels, with a discounted net present value after tax of approximately $2.2 billion. This represents an increase of over 116% against the previously reported 2P Reserves of 116 million barrels).

Heavy oil fields generally have long production lives, and Bentley is no exception with a 35 year Reserves profile out to the year 2050, reflecting the current design life of facilities used in the North Sea. TRACS, our independent reserves auditor, recognises that there is additional economic production from Bentley of a further 20 years beyond this initial period (out to the year 2070) and has assigned a further 46 million barrels of Contingent Resources to this 20-year period. We believe that by more detailed work on areas such as optimising the field and extending field life, there is the potential to access these Resources and deliver further low-risk upside. We also have other areas of potential future growth through the implementation of enhanced oil recovery techniques on the field, as well as exploration on adjacent assets, including those awarded in the recent 27th Licensing Round. These are at an early stage and we would expect to progress them systematically, as we have always done.

Not surprisingly, we are greatly disappointed by the share price performance, especially following the great result we have delivered, but we will continue to move forward and focus on what we can control, which is the development of Bentley. Securing funding is a critical element of this and we have recently begun a farm-out process to find a suitable partner. We believe it should be possible to materially increase our RBL facility as a result of the Reserves upgrade and will be engaging with our existing and new banks to progress this. We will also be re-submitting an updated FDP in the coming months. We believe heavy oil’s time has come in the North Sea, as evidenced by the very significant investments currently being made by Statoil (and partners) into the Bressay field just to the North of Bentley, the Mariner field to the south of Bentley, and EnQuest (and Partners) expected commitment to develop the Kraken field to the west of Bentley. Together, these fields represent very substantial sources of future long-term oil production from the North Sea, which as currently forecast, would make substantial long-term contributions to the UK economy”.

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