Smallcap Oil & Gas Round-up with a sprinkling of Miners! 22.July.2011

The weekly round-up!

Ascent Resources;

Informed the market that they have placed a number of convertible loan notes with existing Italian creditors to raise €552,525 with an option to issue a further €70,000 of convertible loan notes in the future for additional services. The proceeds will be used to advance work on Ascent’s Italian portfolio. The unsecured loan notes, which carry interest of 8.5% per annum, are convertible into ordinary shares at a conversion price of 12p per Ordinary Share on or before the 31 December 2013.

Aurelian Oil & Gas;

Advised that it has moved its registered office and main business address to:- 4 Grosvenor Place, London SW1X 7HJ

Bahamas Petroleum;

Reported the results from its recent CPR by Ryder Scott which focused only on the Cretaceous interval. Four structures over the Bain, Cooper and Donaldson licences have Unrisked Recoverable Prospective Resources (EUR) in excess of 500 million bbls each at multiple reservoir intervals, and three of those have an unrisked EUR in excess of 1 billion barrels. Bahamas Petroleum hopes to spud the first exploration well in 2012 and no later than April 26, 2013. Bahamas also announced that they had appointed Steve Weyel as a Non-Executive Director.

Chariot Oil & Gas;

Updated Investors this week,  farm-out negotiations over two of its licence areas offshore Namibia had taken much longer than originally planned but the company expects to conclude these in due course. Talks continue with multiple parties on the third licence area. With regard to drilling, Chariot said that the market for deepwater rigs has tightened markedly, making it more challenging to secure an appropriate rig without paying a high premium to expedite the process. All of the necessary long lead items have been ordered and/or received and the permitting process has begun.

Circle Oil;

Announced the following update regarding the Al Amir SE-8X water injection well together with details on the imminent drilling of Geyad-5X, a water injector, to support production in the Geyad Field. Prof Chris Green, CEO, said “I am pleased to report another successful result as the partnership’s plans in NW Gemsa remain on schedule. The rig now has now moved to start drilling the first injector well on the Geyad field as part of the development plan to increase production rates for the medium and long term.”

Dominion Petroleum;

Announced in conjunction with the recent conditional placement of its shares,  a special general meeting (“SGM”) of shareholders on Monday 25 July at 9 am local time at Richmond House, 12 Par-la-ville Road, Hamilton, HM08, Bermuda. I can’t imagine why they’re holding the meeting in BERMUDA? Unless it’s a deliberate tactic to keep private Investors away. Strange one this! The purpose of the SGM is to approve the placement and other corporate events as described in the circular which was sent to shareholders on 29 June, a copy of which can be found on the Company’s website as follows: http://www.dominionpetroleum.com/_uploads/user/Press/Circular.pdf.

Europa Oil & Gas;

Have now received both drilling approval and an extension to the licence from the Romanian authorities in order to undertake the deepening of the Barchiz-1 exploration well, situated in the EPI-3 Brates Concession. Still in Romania, the Voitinel gas discovery appraisal well is due to spud on or around early October of this year.

Max Petroleum;

Announced that the ZMA-ET1 well has been connected to temporary production facilities for long-term production testing and is currently producing at a stable rate of approximately 650 bopd. Max  also perforated the ZMA-ET2 appraisal well, successfully flowing 48 degree API oil at an equivalent rate of approximately 450 bopd during a limited flow-back period. The well will now be connected to temporary production facilities and brought onto long-term production testing in August 2011. The company also stated that drilling of  the UTS-2 appraisal well on the Uytas prospect in Block A had commenced. The total depth of the well will be approximately 800 metres, targeting potential Cretaceous, Jurassic and Triassic reservoirs .Max ALSO appointed Steven Martin as Senior Vice President of Engineering. Martin has over 33 years of experience as a petroleum engineer, including 27 years at Anadarko.

Jubilant Energy;

Informed the market that they have spud the Srikantabari Appraisal Well in the southern part of the Tripura block in North Eastern India. This is the first well to appraise the Kathachari-1 (K-1) discovery and is anticipated to take 65 days.

3Legs Resources;

(Great name for a company) 3legs has finally spud the Warblino LE-1H horizontal shale gas well on its Damnica licence in Poland. The Warblino well will be drilled initially as a vertical pilot well to enable detailed core and log analysis of the target lower Palaeozoic shales. The well will then be plugged back and a lateral horizontal section will be drilled.

Matra Petroleum;

Disappointing news for investors came in the form of further problems regarding the water ingress on A12. Matra announced that following a workover, well-12 on the Sokolovskoe Field in Russia had developed a leak in the casing/liner system. The well has averaged 352 bpd with a water cut of around 42% (net 203 bopd) since 2 July. The source of the water has not been identified and the well will continue on production and be monitored.

Nautical Petroleum;

Announced that an Independent Resource Opinion conducted by Gaffney, Cline & Associates on the Kraken discovery in North Sea Blocks 9/2b and 9/1a endorses Nautical’s resource estimate for the main sand, the Heimdal III reservoir, and confirms Kraken as a material asset, with significant upside. An appraisal well is currently drilling in order to gather further information about the Heimdall III reservoir and to confirm a commercial flowrate in the core area of the field.

Providence Resources;

Have commenced its 3D seismic acquisition project in Frontier Exploration Licence (FEL) 4/08 in the Porcupine Basin, off the west coast of Ireland. The c.200 km2 3D survey is expected to run for approximately 15 days.  Providence has also  entered into a $60 million prepaid oil swap transaction with Deutsche Bank. The six and a half year debt facility is secured by way of a first lien over the Singleton oil field in West Sussex, UK. The funds will be used to repay the existing reserve base lending facility and to facilitate the ongoing development plan for the Singleton property to materially increase production rates.

Resaca Exploitation;

Announces that it’s making progress on delivering its 1,000 boepd target by the year end. The company has completed approximately 75% of the program and production across the portfolio has increased from an average of 616 net boepd in January to an average of 728 boepd during the first half of July, an increase of almost 20%.

Rockhopper Exploration;

Has spud the 14/10-6 appraisal well in the North Falkland Basin. The well is the third appraisal well to be drilled on the Sea Lion feature since Rockhopper’s oil discovery in May 2010.

Roxi Petroleum;

Some good news for holders of Roxi as the company announce that it has received an extension to the BNG Sub-Surface User Contract till June 2013, from the Ministry of Oil and Gas in Kazakhstan. This extension is the first of two, 2 year extensions, and is awarded with a work programme of commitment of two wells; one to 2500m and one to 4500m. Roxi is maturing the multiple prospects identified so far, with the aim of scheduling a drilling programme for 2012/13. Work is also under way preparing South Yelemes wells 54 and 805 for Pilot production in the fourth quarter of 2011.

THE RETURN OF TomCo Energy  commenced on the AIM AFTER an absence of almost two years. The admission of TomCo follows a £3.5 million fundraising under a placing and open offer and concludes the refinancing undertaken since the cancellation of its admission to AIM in August 2009.

Victoria Oil & Gas;

Increased its effective working interest in the Logbaba gas and gas condensate field in Douala, Cameroon to 95% after its partner, RSM, failed to meet cash calls in respect of its 38% interest.

Xcite Energy;

Has drawn down £4.2 million from its Standby Equity Distribution Agreement with Yorkville at a price of £1.567 per share. The funding will be used as future working capital and to progress towards the first stage production of the Bentley field.