Proactive Investors UK
Weekly Roundup
By Proactive Investors
It was a region rather than a deal that stole the headlines this week.
Morocco got under the spotlight as giantBP’s (LON:BP.) moved into the area that is already gripped by exploration fever.
The UK oil major has done a deal with Kosmos for three blocks offshore Morocco, one of which is Foum Assaka where small cap explorer Fastnet (LON:FAST) has an 18.75% stake.
BP will take a 26.325% non–operating stake in Foum Assaka through the farm-in, with Kosmos’s stake reduced to 29.925%.
BP has also agreed with Kosmos to take sizeable stakes in the Essaouira Offshore and Tarhazoute Offshore licences, which, like Foum Assaka, are situated in the Agadir Basin.
Meanwhile, work will begin in a matter of weeks on Cairn (LON:CNE) and Genel’s (LON:GENL) respective drill programmes, the start of a phase of work that will see the drilling of around ten deep water wells by a number of companies and at a likely combined cost in excess of US$1bn.
Any material successes in these high impact wells will put Morocco on the map as a major new oil frontier and industry interest will surely build further.
Indeed, the fact that oil ‘super-major’ BP has made its move at this stage – when the promising prospects currently exist on paper only – highlights how keen the majors are not to miss out.
Elsewhere, Enegi Oil (LON:ENEG) has successfully diversified its business, according to Shore Capital.
The recently appointed house broker this week began its coverage of the AIM quoted company, valueing the group’s assets at 33p per share – more than four times the group’s current price of 7.6p
The reserves based valuation points to the potential of the group’s plans in the North Sea where it intends to deploy proprietary new technologies to transform marginal fields.
Enegi has already put together a portfolio of assets for this business and it continues to assess new opportunities.
It secures interests in such opportunities by leveraging its cost cutting technology in return for project equity.
Oilex (LON:OEX) told investors this week that it has been awarded two exploration permits in the Canning Basin, one of Australia’s most exciting shale plays.
The two neighbouring blocks, L12-08 and L12-09, have similar characteristics to Oilex’s Cambay Field and are possibly prospective for oil and liquids-rich gas.
It adds 6,444 square kilometres to its acreage, bringing its total position to just below 18,000 square kilometres (around 4.4 million acres).
Tethys Petroleum (LON:TPL) believes it has made a gas discovery in the shallow part of the Doto well in Kazakhstan.
The well has so far been drilled to a depth of 1,368 metres, casing is now being installed before drilling resumes towards the 3,500 metres target depth.
While drilling around the 600 metre level the well encountered high levels of gas and Tethys said that together with logs this suggests a potential new discovery.
Prior tests on two nearby wells indicate such a discovery would be commercial and Tethys now intends to incorporate an appraisal in its upcoming shallow gas drilling programme.
Jupiter Energy (LON:JPRL, ASX:JPRL) repeated its full year production and sales targets after a third quarter production update.
The sales target for the year remains 265,000 barrels sold for a total of around US$8.4mln after a quarter in which around 60,600 barrels were sold in the domestic market for US$2.02mln, at an average price of around US$33.30 a barrel at the well head.
In other news, Egdon Resources (LON:EDR) has completed a 3D seismic survey near Dorchester in Dorset, UK, where it has previously unearthed the potential for around 50mln barrels of oil.
The AIM quoted UK explorer has told investors that the survey covered a 68.5 square kilometres area, which is on trend with the large Wytch Farm field.
