Smallcap Oil & Gas round-up 15.July.2011

Bahamas Petroleum;

The oil and gas exploration company with offshore licence permits in The Commonwealth of The Bahamas, announced that at the Annual General Meeting held yesterday, all resolutions were duly passed.

Caza Oil & Gas;

Held its Annual General Meeting.  Shareholders approved all resolutions put to the meeting, including the election of David McManus, as a non-executive director of the Company, effective July 12, 2011.

Desire Petroleum;

Announced that Graeme Thomson, FCA, will join the Board as an Independent Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee with effect from today. Thomson has over 30 years public company experience and has held a number of senior positions in the oil and gas industry. He was Finance Director & Company Secretary for seven years at Dragon Oil plc and its predecessor companies. He was also a co-founder of Sterling Energy plc and spent nine years as its Finance Director, Company Secretary and was its Chief Executive Officer for his last two years with the Company until he left in December 2009. Since then, Thomson has been advising a number of oil and gas companies on their corporate finance, accounting, commercial and strategic affairs.

Enegi Oil;

Informed that Obsideo LLP, which is part of the RMRI group of companies controlled by Alan Minty, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Enegi plc, has today sold 300,000 ordinary shares in the Company at an average price of £0.14p. Alan Minty has not sold any of his own shareholding and his interest in the Company in his own right and through related parties following this transaction is as follows: Alan Minty; 6,808,911 shares. RMRI Companies; 6,461,377 shares. Alan Minty’s interest in Enegi therefore totals 13,270,288 shares, representing 13.61 per cent of the Company’s issued share capital.

Forte Energy;

The exploration and development company with uranium assets in Guinea and Mauritania, announced the appointment of Scott Yelland as Chief Operating Officer. Scott joins Forte Energy from Berkeley Resources Ltd, an ASX and AIM listed resources company with advanced uranium exploration and development projects in Spain. His appointment will be effective from the 1st of September 2011 although he will be involved earlier in exploration strategy.

Global energy development;

Informed the market of the Postponement of the posting Offer Document. On 16 June 2011, HKN Inc. announced the terms of a mandatory cash offer to be made by HKN for all the issued and to be issued Ordinary Shares in Global not already held by HKN and persons deemed to be acting in concert with it.  As stated in the announcement on 16 June 2011, the obligation to make the mandatory offer arose as a result of Lyford, a concert party of HKN, entering into a conditional agreement to acquire 3,565,936 Global Shares, representing an interest of approximately 9.97 per cent. in Global, from the United States Marshals Service.  Completion of the Acquisition is subject to the satisfaction of a number of conditions and shall take place on or before 13 September 2011, subject to agreement between the parties.  The Directors of HKN and the Independent Directors of Global announce that they have agreed, with the consent of the Takeover Panel, to postpone the posting of the Offer Document until the conditions to the Acquisition are satisfied and Lyford has completed the Acquisition. It is expected that the Offer Document will be posted to Global Shareholders shortly after the completion of the Acquisition and, in any event within seven days of such completion.

Gulf Keystone Petroleum;

Further to the favourable decision of the English Commercial Court to award costs to Gulf Keystone and two of its subsidiaries (the “Companies”), as announced by the Company on 28 June 2011, an interim payment of £250,000 has been made by Excalibur Ventures LLC (“Excalibur”) to the Companies. The Companies continue vigorously to dispute and contest the allegations and claims asserted by Excalibur. The Board of Gulf Keystone will provide further updates in due course.

Ithaca Energy;

Operations to prepare the Athena field development well 14/18b-A2Z (Òthe wellÓ or ÒA2Ó) for production have been successfully concluded.  A 7Ó production liner and a dual electrical submersible pump system have been successfully installed above the horizontal section of the well and the subsea xmas tree and flowbase are ready for the hook-up of flowlines by the subsea installation contractor in September. The Sedco 704 drilling unit, will stay on location to undertake further completion work for the project and is currently preparing to complete 14/18b-16 (to be renamed 14/18b-A3 or ÒA3Ó).  This is the second of a five well programme of completions (four production and one water injection) to be carried out before hook-up to the Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessel, ÔBW AthenaÕ which is scheduled to sail to the Athena location by the end of Q3 2011. Athena Joint Venture Partners are Ithaca (operator, 22.5%), Dyas UK Ltd (47.5%), EWE Aktiengesellschaft (20%) and Zeus Petroleum Limited (10%). Stella Project – Subsea Trees and Control Systems Contract Awarded. The development of the Stella field has moved a step forward through the placement of a contract with GE Oil & Gas to manufacture and supply subsea trees and controls systems. The initial phase of detailed engineering work has commenced and will focus on the procurement of forgings and materials for the systems. The systems will be delivered as an integrated package and are designed for installation using a heavy duty jackup drilling unit. The supply of the trees and control systems will be managed and delivered from GE Oil & GasÕs Aberdeen facility. The Company also confirms that a geotechnical programme is currently ongoing to determine the suitability of certain jackup drilling units at four potential development drilling locations on the Stella and Harrier fields and incorporating test boreholes in advance of the planned Hurricane appraisal well.  Two drill centres will be selected.

Kea Petroleum;

Bad news for holders of Kea stock as the company announced that it expects to terminate the initial flow test programme on Wingrove-2 in the coming week. Several intervals of thin sands within the Upper Miocene Urenui Formation at depths of 1100 to 1300 m were simultaneously tested, and flowed oil and gas at low rates, together with considerable amounts of water. It is considered that economically viable oil flow rates will not be achieved in this well. The Mount Messenger Sands, typically several hundred metres deeper than the Urenui Sands, were not flow tested, as earlier log analysis had indicated they are water bearing in Wingrove-2. However, these remain as prime exploration targets in this area, as they are typically thicker and better reservoir quality. They will be the target of further drilling later this year.

Leed Petroleum;

Were forced to issue an amendment following a cock-up on the Grant of Options announcement on 7. July 2011.The following amendment has been made to the ‘Grant of Options’ announcement released on 07 July 2011 at 07:00am under RNS No 9132J. The following announcement removes reference to the exercise price at £0.04. It includes the correct exercise price of 0.4p. Omen or portents of things to come?

Max Petroleum;

Announced that it has begun testing of the ZMA-ET1 appraisal well in the Zhana Makat Field, successfully flowing 47 degree API oil at an equivalent rate of approximately 1,200 barrels of oil per day. The well will be connected to temporary production facilities later this week and brought onto production. The Company expects the well to produce at a stabilised rate between 500 and 1,000 bopd. Max also  announced that it has commenced drilling the KZIE-1 exploration well on the East Kyzylzhar I prospect in Block E. Total depth of the well will be approximately 1,500 metres, targeting potential Jurassic and Triassic reservoirs.

Niche Group;

Released an Independent Update Re’ “Independent Evaluation of Hydrocarbons”. The Executive Summary is available for viewing on the Documents section of the Company’s website at. http://www.nichegroupplc.co.uk/documents.aspx

Northern Petroleum;

Announces an update to its preliminary examination, dated 2 July 2010, of the environmental proposals as first detailed in a posting on the official Ministry of the Environment web-site in late June 2010 and attributed to Environment Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo. Legislative Decree 128/10 cameinto force with effect from  26 August 2010. Copys of which can be read on the company web-site by clicking this link.  http://www.northpet.com/

Oilex;

Cambay-76H “Tight” Reservoir Well Report No 6… Advises that operations are continuing to demobilise the Black Pearl rig and associated drilling equipment.
Mobilization of the equipment required to conduct the large volume multi-stage fracture stimulation of the Y Zone tight gas reservoir is near completion and
rigging up is progressing. In total, 16 zones will be stimulated in 8 stages over the length of the horizontal section of the well bore (approximately 600
metres).

Petroceltic International;

Issued an operational update on its Isarene permit (Blocks 228 & 229a) in the Illizi Basin in South Eastern Algeria.  Petroceltic operates the permit with a 56.625 % interest, Sonatrach holds a 25% interest, and Enel holds 18.375% interest, pending final Government of Algeria ratification, which is expected later this year. AT-6 well encountered 45 metres of net pay…AT-5 testing underway…Second rig mobilised to accelerate appraisal activiti…Drilling of AT-7 and AT-8 wells scheduled to commence this month. Well AT-6, the third well in the current appraisal campaign on the Ain Tsila gas discovery was drilled to a total depth of 2085m and has successfully logged gas in the main Ordovician reservoir. The well is currently being suspended in preparation for testing with a rig-less testing unit following completion of the testing programme currently underway at AT-5. The AT-6 well is a vertical well targeting a broad culmination in the South East of the Ain Tsila Field outside the 3D seismic survey area, approximately 17 km  South East of the AT-4 well location. The principal objective of the well was to extend the proven gas in place and to test the reservoir quality towards the mapped south eastern limit of the field. The well commenced drilling on 9th June 2011 and reached a total depth of 2085m on 5th July ahead of schedule and within budget. The Ordovician reservoir was encountered as expected with good gas shows and a full suite of logs was run. Initial log interpretations indicate a gross Ordovician reservoir interval of 168m, and a net pay interval of 45m.This confirms the extension of the field at this significant step-out from the previously drilled wells. Following suspension of AT-6, the Dalma rig will move to drill a further vertical appraisal well in the far southwest of the field, AT-7, which is expected to commence drilling operations in late July. Rig-less well testing operations have recently commenced at the AT-5 wellsite, following minor delays associated with the arrival of certain personnel and equipment to the site. AT-5 was drilled with a 376m of horizontal section through a fractured “pop-up” feature in the Ordovician reservoir. Depending on the results of initial testing, the programme is likely to include hydraulic fracturing of some of the reservoir zones to enhance gas flow rates. Second rig mobilised for extended appraisal programme. A second rig, the KCA Deutag T-211 rig, has mobilised to the Isarene permit and is currently rigging up to drill well AT-8 at a location in the north of the field. The AT-8 well is expected to spud in mid-July and is a vertical well targeting a structural pop-up feature similar to AT-5. The well objective is to test for significant additional gas in place as well as potentially accessing fracture features identified on seismic. With the addition of a second rig, the current six well delineation programme is expected to be complete by year end in time for the preparation of the Final Discovery Report for submittal to the Algerian authorities. Brian O’Cathain, Chief Executive of Petroceltic commented: “Initial results from the AT-6 well are very encouraging and increase the proven area of the Ain Tsila field considerably to the southeast with this large step-out. We are also extremely pleased that testing operations on AT-5 are underway. We are now entering a most exciting and busy period on our Isarene permit in Algeria with 2 rigs and a rig-less testing unit in operation.  We look forward to announcing further well results by the end of July.”

PetroLatina;

Good news for Petrolatina who today announced a farm-out agreement with Shell E&P Colombia, effective 12 July 2011. Under the terms of the agreement, Shell E&P Colombia will acquire an 85% participating interest in the Company’s VMM-28 Exploration and Production contract (the “E&P Contract”), subject to the approval of the ANH. The VMM-28 block is currently wholly owned and operated by Petroleos del Norte S.A. (“PDN”), PetroLatina’s Colombian operating subsidiary.

Premier Oil;

Announced a trading and operations update ahead of its 2011 Interim Results which will be announced on Thursday 25 August 2011. Copys of which can be viewed by clicking the link.  http://www.premier-oil.com/render.aspx?siteID=1&navIDs=19,312,327,776,804

Range Resources;

Announced that the first of two exploration wells to be drilled in Georgia this year has spudded with drilling now under way. Mukhiani 1 well in Georgia spudded on 13.July.20. Mukhiani 1 is expected to take approximately 55 days to drill and is targeting a prospect with a mean estimate of undiscovered oil in place of 115 million barrels. Partners in the venture are Red Emperor, Strait Oil & Gas.

Salamander Energy;

Informed the market of the completion of drilling operations on the Dao Ruang structure, Block L15/50, onshore Northeast Thailand.The Dao Ruang-3 appraisal well  has been drilled to a total depth of 1,800 metres true vertical depth sub-sea in order to test the pre-Tertiary carbonate section on the northern flank of the Dao Ruang structure. The well intersected a number of zones of interest with associated gas shows and a full suite of wire-line logs have been acquired. Analysis of all available well data suggests that DR-3 would have limited potential as a producer from the current wellbore. Due to this, and wellbore stability reasons, a decision has been made not to flow test the well. The DR-3 well is currently in the process of being plugged and abandoned.

Solo Oil;

It’s been a busy week for Solo with Ausable #5 Preliminary Test Results and the Acquisition of Canadian Interests. Copy’s of which can be viewed on the company web-site. http://www.solooil.co.uk/  And last but not least Xcite energy; released an Update on the  “Rowan Norway” N-Class Jack-Up Rig and FDP. The Company announced that the “Rowan Norway” deep water jack-up rig, scheduled for use on the Company’s Bentley field, has now been delivered by the Keppel FELS shipyard in Singapore to Rowan Companies, Inc.

The rig will now be transported to Dundee using the OHT Hawk heavy lift vessel, where it will undergo final testing and will be crewed and equipped for its deployment onto the Bentley field.

Preparations for the submission to the Department of Energy and Climate Change of a Field Development Plan for the Bentley field remain on track and are consistent with the rig deployment timing.