Sunday Blog, 5 March 2023
88E EEENF PANR PTHRF HE1 NHE.AX BOIL IOG LBE AEX SCIR GENL ECO ANGS I3E COPL UPL
It’s been an interesting couple of weeks for news. 88 Energy (88E) announced that Hickory-1 pre-spud operations are on track and ice pad construction is nearing completion. Spud is expected soon. The well is designed to appraise up to six conventional reservoir targets and 647 million barrels of oil. Drilling is expected to take four weeks. Flow testing of the Hickory-1 well is planned to be undertaken during the 2023/24 winter season, subject to well results.
Next door neighbour, Pantheon Energy (PANR), announced an operational update. Following the successful clean out of the sand blockage in the well bore, flow testing operations have now recommenced. However, flow test information will only be reported after flow rates have been stabilised. That could be some time.
Helium One Global (HE1) announced a company update further to the announcement made by Noble Helium (ASX:NHE), the company which has entered into a co-operation agreement with HE1. Helium One and Noble have agreed to work together in sourcing and securing a suitable rig, associated services and arranging logistics as required for HE1's proposed drilling campaign. NHE has a much smaller market capitalisation than Helium One, yet is said to have some of the best acreage in the most prospective untested helium ground on the planet: on one of its projects alone, there’s claimed to be potential for the world’s third largest helium reserve (behind the USA and Qatar) - and the largest primary reserve. I’ll be discussing Noble Helium in the private blog this evening.
Baron Oil (BOIL) announced a competent person's report on the Chuditch PSC. The independent assessment of approximately 1.1 trillion cubic feet of gross Pmean contingent resources for the Chuditch-1 discovery is a major milestone for the company, endorsing the potential commercial viability of the asset and highlighting its attractions to potential future participants in the Chuditch project. With current work commitments on both the Timor-Leste and UK assets largely complete, BOIL’s focus now is on assessing the viability of drilling for both a Chuditch appraisal well in Timor-Leste and a Dunrobin West exploration well in the UK.
IOG (IOG) announced the resignation of Fiona MacAulay (shareholders appear to be relieved/pleased to see her go) and a full year 2022 reserves and resources update. Unsurprisingly, the numbers are considerably lower than for the previous year. They say this is an essential pre-requisite for maximising the value of the portfolio and provides the technical baseline for their operational and investment plans, based on a realistic and balanced subsurface view of each asset. The market capitalisation continues to hold over £25 million.
Longboat Energy (LBE) announced a licence update for PL 939 (Egyptian Vulture). The joint venture participants have been unable to form an aligned view regarding an appraisal well and will not be committing to a licence extension. Therefore, the licence is being relinquished. Longboat is now looking to form a new group to take the asset forward and will seek to re-apply for the acreage in the forthcoming licence round with awards due in January 2024. Along with BlackRock continuing to sell, the company’s market capitalisation is now down to just £6 million.
Aminex (AEX) announced an operations update. The company has been informed by the operator of Ruvuma of a further delay to the spudding of the Chikumbi-1 well. However, plans to accelerate gas production have been further developed, with the Tanzanian authorities now targeting October 2023 for production of first gas, resulting in earlier gas revenues to the company in the fourth quarter of this year, decoupling the production of first gas from the spudding of the CH-1 well. AEX is now capitalised at around £45 million and the share price has approximately doubled since it first started being covered weekly in the private blog.
Scirocco Energy (SCIR) also issued a Ruvuma operational update. It too has a 25% interest (in its case not carried), which it has agreed to sell to ARA Petroleum, the operator, for a total consideration of up to $16 million. Many no longer regard the company as serious and with a capitalisation of only around £2 million, the market would appear to agree that the directors are likely to just squander the money.
Genel Energy (GENL) announced signature of a petroleum agreement regarding the Lagzira block, Morocco, where the company has a 75% working interest and is operator. The block has a proven petroleum system following Genel’s SM-1 well, which recovered oil from the Upper Jurassic reservoirs, and 18 prospects/leads have been identified, with over 2.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent mean recoverable prospective resource potential. Individual prospects are estimated at 100-700 million barrels each. GENL now has launched a process to find a partner to take a material equity position and jointly pursue the exploration programme in the block, with the opportunity to drill and test one of the high-graded prospects.
In closing, Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas (ECO) announced unaudited results and a corporate update. The company reports what it says is substantial progress across a number of fronts in its exploration portfolio. Angus Energy (ANGS) announced a Saltfleetby drilling and corporate update. The company says it is confident from the electric logging, mud logging and gas shows in the reservoir section that the SF7v sidetrack well will be a successful producer. i3 Energy (I3E) announced a fourth quarter 2022 operational and financial update. The company says it is on course to deliver positive year end 2022 financials and reserves data by the end of March. Canadian Overseas Petroleum (COPL) announced a covenant waiver and operations update. It has been a difficult winter. Finally, Upland Resources (UPL) announced an onshore geological fieldwork study for Sarawak. It says preliminary findings have been positive.
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