Smallcap Oil & Gas round-up. With a sprinkling of Miners!

Smallcap wrap!

10.June.2011

Aminex;

Announces plans for drilling a further exploration well in the Ruvuma Basin Production Sharing Agreement area of Tanzania. The well is designated Ntorya-1 and will be drilled in the Mtwara Block, in the southern part of the Ruvuma PSA. Partners in the well are Tullow Oil (operator – 50%), Aminex (37.5%) and Solo Oil (12.5%). The Ntorya-1 well will be drilled about 14 kilometres to the south of Likonde-1, to a planned total depth of 2020 metres, targeting the same high quality Lower Tertiary reservoir sands encountered in the Likonde-1 well.  Seismic interpretation places the sands at Ntorya-1 structurally up-dip relative to Likonde-1.  Aminex estimates that the well has a probability of success for the discovery of hydrocarbons of approximately 20%, with a mean recoverable resource potential of 100 million barrels oil equivalent. The Tanzanian authorities have now formally approved the drilling of Nyorya-1 and a rig has been secured.  Spud date is likely to be September-October this year.

Berkeley Mineral Resources;

Announces that due diligence on BMR’s proposed purchase of all the remaining stockpiles of tailings not presently owned by it at the Kabwe mine in Zambia has been completed satisfactorily and the vendors have been notified of this. Accordingly, the parties are now proceeding towards formal Completion of the acquisition agreement which is expected shortly. The company also announced that it has decided not to proceed further with the proposed acquisition referred to in the Company’s announcement of 11 May 2011 as the purchase price indicated was substantially higher than the acquisition’s value to BMR.  However, the agreement between BMR and Novum Securities announced on 11 May 2011 remains in place in accordance with its terms.

Borders & Southern;

Released their annual financial report Copys of which can be viewed by clicking this link below

http://www.bordersandsouthern.com/news_and_media/RNS/

Caza Oil & Gas;

Provided an operational update on the Company’s San Jacinto, Bongo and Windham projects. Caza, as operator, was able to secure a rig ahead of schedule and is currently drilling the Caza Elkins 3401 well on the San Jacinto (Wolfberry) property. The well should take approximately 25 more days to drill to a total depth of 11,200 feet and is targeting the Wolfberry, Strawn and Devonian formations, which produce oil in the immediate area.  All subsequent wells will be drilled to approximately 10,500 feet to test the Wolfberry and Strawn formations.  The Caza Elkins 3402 well will be drilled immediately following the Caza Elkins 3401 well with the same rig.  The property covers approximately 480 acres with five proven undeveloped locations…The O.B. Ranch #2 appraisal well,  is drilling ahead and is currently on schedule.  Intermediate casing was set at 7,600 feet, and the well is currently drilling at 8,811 feet. ..The Company has also completed remedial operations on the O.B. Ranch #1 well…The Caza 158 #3 well on the Windham property has reached its target depth of 9,824 feet.

Circle Oil;

The international oil and gas exploration, development and production company, announced the 2011 update to Ultimate Recoverable Resources  for the NW Gemsa Concession, Egypt, and the Sebou Permit, Morocco, which indicates a significant increase over the 2010 URR estimates for both permits. The updated gross estimates were compiled by RPS Energy an independent consultancy specialising in petroleum and gas reservoir evaluation. The estimates use the 2007 Petroleum Resources Management System produced by SPE/WPC/AAPG/SPEE and are set out in the tables in the full RNS.

Cluff Gold:

West African focused gold miner Cluff, was pleased to announce that it has amicably settled the labour dispute at its Kalsaka mine in Burkina Faso.
Normal operations resumed on 7 June 2011 and the temporary disruptions have not affected the Company’s annual production guidance of 70,000 ounces from Kalsaka in 2011.

Enegi Oil;

Released an Operational Update today..All farm-in agreements with Fire Horse Energy Limited that relate to PL2002-01 have been terminated by the Company to enable the work programme to be moved forward in a more timely fashion; The results of the workover to date are encouraging with the implication being that: connectivity has improved; deliverability will improve further as the latter stages of the workover are implemented; and the well is in contact with more oil than previously thought.

Europa Oil & Gas;
Provided an  Operational Update  today bearing the wrong date! Outlining activity planned for the remainder of 2011 and into 2012.

FOGL;

Provided an operational update ahead of its AGM …Rig contract…On 19 May 2011 FOGL announced that it had entered into an assignment agreement with Borders & Southern Petroleum plc. and Ocean Rig 1 Inc. to contract the Leiv Eiriksson for two firm drilling slots….FOGL has made significant progress in establishing a strong and experienced drilling team managed by  Dave MacKay, who has  been appointed drilling manager. Dave has over 29 years of international drilling experience and is a specialist in deepwater drilling having worked for the last 12 years for BHP Billiton. Dave also gained crucial Falklands operational experience as part of the drilling management team on the Toroa well in 2010. Mike Thomas has joined as Operations Manager. Mike has over 30 years oil industry experience with Clyde Petroleum, Paladin Resources and most recently was Chief Operating Officer for Dominion Petroleum Ltd. Mike will be responsible for geological aspects, geotechnical well planning and HSE management…Northern licence area approvals On 24 May 2011, the Executive Council of the Falkland Islands approved the withdrawal of BHP Billiton from the northern licence area and transfer of operatorship to FOGL…FOGL is required to make a mandatory relinquishment of 20% of the Northern Licence area at the end of 2011 as required under the existing licence terms.  The second phase of the Northern licence area does not expire until 15 December 2015 and carries the obligation to drill a single exploration well.FOGL has already entered Phase 2 of the Southern Licence area and no further relinquishment is required.

Global Petroleum;

Advise that it has received notification from the Namibian Competition Commission approving the acquisition of Jupiter Petroleum Limited by Global. Under the sale and purchase agreement, Global will acquire Jupiter Petroleum Limited which holds prospective oil and gas exploration interests in offshore Namibia and in offshore Juan de Nova, a French dependency in the Mozambique Channel. The sale and purchase agreement is conditional on the satisfaction of a number of conditions precedent, including due diligence investigations, obtaining necessary consents from governmental authorities, a report from an independent expert that the transaction is fair and reasonable to Global shareholders, and shareholder approval at a General Meeting.

Lansdowne Oil & Gas:

Announced that their 3D Seismic Survey commences over the Barryroe Oilfield in the North Celtic Sea, offshore Ireland this week.

Leed Petroleum;

The Board is pleased to announce that the Company has reached an agreement with UniCredit Bank AG, whereby UniCredit has agreed, conditional on the payment of a fee, to release the Company from the guarantee and security arrangements it had provided to UniCredit pursuant to its loan facilities.  The Company has now had all its material creditors agree to release the Company from its guarantee obligations to them.  The Company now has no material assets or liabilities. Leed now plan to proceed with the proposals to recapitalise the Company as an investment vehicle as announced on 6 May 2011. As part of the Proposals, the Company intends to reclassify itself as an investing company under the AIM rules for Companies in order to invest in the natural resources industry, with a focus on the oil and gas sector.Leed also announced the appointment of Rivington Street Corporate Finance Limited as broker to the Company. As part of the Proposals, Rivington has conditionally placed £2,135,000 of zero coupon unsecured loan notes  which are convertible at the option of the Company into new ordinary shares in the Company. It is intended that conversion of all the Loan Notes will take place immediately following their issue.  In order for the Placing to occur the Company will be required to undertake a reorganization of its share capital that will include the creation of new deferred shares and the consolidation of existing ordinary shares.

Leni Gas & Oil;

Announces resumption of production from the Eugene Island-184 (“EI-184”) platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Production operations were resumed safely on 3 June 2011 at the EI-184 facilities following the transfer of operatorship to Marlin Energy LLP (“Marlin”) as previously announced in late May.  All previously active wells (A1, A3, A4, A5 and A8) were returned to production and operational reporting to the Joint Venture partners has now been resumed.

Matra Petroleum:

BMD has announced his intention to up his stake in the company! Hooray! News of this shortly today!

Max Petroleum;

Announces an operational update of its activities in the Blocks A&E Licence area in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The NARS-1 exploration well on the Narmundanak South prospect in Block E has reached total depth of 1,589 metres with electric logs indicating 4 metres of net oil pay at depths from 1,280 to 1,290 metres in the Triassic Formation with porosities ranging from 18% to 25%. A fluid sample taken from a depth of 1,283 metres yielded 32 degree API oil. The Company is running production casing in the well and expects to test NARS-1 for commercial viability in the next 60-90 days upon receipt of the requisite governmental approvals. The Borkyldakty Field has been placed on production after receiving final approval of the trial production project from the Kazakhstan regulatory authorities. The TPP, valid through March 2013, allows the Company to produce the field and drill additional exploration and appraisal wells in order to gather additional data necessary to prepare a full field development plan. The Company has returned the BOR-1 discovery well to production and is planning to drill the BOR-3 development well in June 2011 using the IDECO rig after it has finished the NARS-1 discovery well.

Northern Petroleum;

Released their Audited Results for the Year Ended 31 December 2010 copiys of which can be viewed on their web-site.

Oilex Ltd;

Advises that the Cambay-76H horizontal well was spudded at 00:00 hours (WST) on 8th June 2011.

Pan African Resources;

The African focused precious metals producer, announced the results of a drilling programme on the Bramber tailings dam at Barberton Mines: Highlights of which were… Indicated mineral resource declared of 148koz (3.130Mt @ 1.47g/t in situ) independently verified at a cut off grade of 0.5g/t…Initial metallurgical test work indicates recoveries of 45% to 55%…Order of Magnitude study estimates capital for the project for a Carbon-in-Leach plant at ZAR120 million (approximately £11m) to treat 1.2Mt of tailings per annum at Barberton Mines for a period of approximately three years…An additional 9Mt of dump material is currently being investigated that could
increase the life of project (`LOP’) from three years to ten years…If viable this project could increase production at Barberton Mines by
another 20koz per annum over the LOP…Feasibility study on the project will be completed by Q2 of 2011/12 financial year.

Final Results for the year ended 31 December 2010

PetroLatina;

The independent oil and gas exploration, development and production company focused on Latin America, announced its audited final results for the year ended 31 December 2010. Copies of which can be found on the company web-site.

Solo Oil;

The AIM listed International Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Company, announceD plans for the drilling of an exploration well, Ntorya-1, in the Mtwara Block of the Ruvuma Basin PSA in Tanzania with its partners Tullow Oil plc (operator) and Aminex plc. In 2010 the partnership, in which Solo holds a 12.5% interest, drilled the Likonde-1 well in the Lindi Block.  The Likonde-1 well was drilled to a TD of 3,647 metres and intersected two sandstone intervals with a combined thickness of over 250 metres (820 feet), with evidence of residual oil and gas. Drilling of Likonde-1 was terminated due to high gas influx. The Ntorya-1 well will be drilled in the Mtwara Block about 14 kilometres south of Likondi-1.  It is planned to drill the well to a total depth of around 2020 metres, targeting the same high quality Lower Tertiary reservoir sands encountered in the Likonde-1 well.  Seismic interpretation places the sands structurally up-dip at Ntorya-1 relative to Likonde-1.  Solo estimate that the well has a probability of success for the discovery of hydrocarbons (oil or gas) of approximately 20%, and that there is a mean recoverable resource potential of approximately 630 bcf.

Sound Oil;

Advised that the completion operation on Marciano-1ST well commenced on Saturday 4 June at 09.00 local time.  The operation will involve the perforation of two potential gas-bearing zones at 1283-1288m and 1326-1331m MD.  The work on the well is anticipated to take 10 days to complete. The Marciano-1ST well, located on the Fonte San Damiano Concession in Basilicata, southern Italy, is operated by Sound Oil’s majority owned subsidiary Apennine Energy with a 99% working interest. Gerrry Orbell, Sound Oil’s Chairman and Chief Executive commented:”We are pleased to be starting operations on the Marciano well and look forward to successful testing operations that will enable us to move forward with early commercialisation of the project”. The company later in the week announced  that “through its majority held subsidiary Apennine Energy srl (Apennine), it has concluded a Farm-In Agreement with Servizi & Assistenza Ricerche Petrolifere spa (SARP) to acquire an interest in the Montemarciano Permit located in Ancona Province, central Italy.  The permit is currently operated by SARP with 100% working interest.” Under the terms of the Agreement, Apennine will pay SARP €215,000 ($290,000) as a contribution to past expenditures and fund the 100% cost of the Casa Tiberi-1 exploration well up to €800,000 ($1,080,000) to earn a 75% working interest in the permit and the Operatorship.

Xcite Energy:

In accordance with AIM Rule 20, Xcite Energy confirmed that the annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 December 2010 were posted to shareholders on 3 May 2011. The report is available, in electronic form, for download on the Company’s website: www.xcite-energy.com