OGV Energy’s weekly oil and gas review

Victoria Oil & Gas PLC shares soared this week after the group’s Cameroon subsidiary reached a US$12.5mln legal settlement for a long-running asset dispute.

A deal between Gaz du Cameroon (GDC), a subsidiary of VOG, and Cameroon Holdings Limited (CHL) sees the latter agree to cease all legal action and a royalty agreement held by CHL has been cancelled.

The agreement lifts a substantial cloud from what has otherwise been a small-cap success story, which saw VOG take the Logbaba field from single way exploration success, in 2009, into development by creating its own infrastructure and distribution into Cameroon’s economic capita, the City of Duala.

On Thursday, stockbroker Cenkos highlighted the ‘billion-barrel potential’ available to 88 Energy Ltd as it repeated a ‘buy’ recommendation that comes with a very substantial target price.

Pitched at 2.8p the broker’s price target implies the Alaska explorer’s shares could rise to around 6 times the current level of 0.43p.

It comes after third party data analysis 3provided the basis for a new resource estimate for the conventional oil targets at Project Icewine.

Previously, on Tuesday, released an updated assessment of the conventional resources for Project Icewine, defining some 1.77bn barrels of oil equivalent across multiple features.

The Lima Fan prospect in the Seabee formation, notably, is seen to have substantial volumes of oil with prospective resources estimated at 1.4bn barrel, equating to most of the newly stated resource.

88 Energy was also a highlight on Monday when it announced that it has selected a preferred bidder for its farm-out of the Peregrine exploration project. Final documentation is expected to be executed in the next few weeks – at which point the company anticipates announcing further transaction details.

Touchstone Exploration Inc said it is prioritising investment on its expectation-beating projects in the Ortoire block onshore Trinidad and Tobago.

The comments came as the explorer posted results showing daily production of 1,310 barrels of oil per day (bopd) in the third quarter. The rate compares to 1,396 bopd in the preceding quarter and 1,729 bopd in the comparative three months last year.

"The board's focus remains on our Ortoire property where exploration activities to date have significantly exceeded expectations,” said Paul Baay, Touchstone chief executive in the results statement.

Baay added: “We are currently drilling our fourth exploration well, Cascadura Deep-1, and we are in the process of finalizing a nine-month extension to the exploration phase of the Ortoire licence.”

Mosman Oil & Gas Limited expects to conduct its first workover at the Greater Stanley project this week, before separately progressing well testing at the Champion project’s Falcon well next week.

After that, the company said it will begin drilling the Galaxie-1 well at the Champion project.

It comes as Mosman and its partners manage its operations sequentially amidst the constraints of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Union Jack Oil PLC relayed a statement from Egdon Resources which is operator of the Biscapthorpe project, where a planning application is slated for February.

Egdon’s statement noted that it will, on behalf of all partners, submit an application for planning permission for side-track well drilling, associated testing and, in a success case, long-term oil production. The project operator added that its application will be accompanied by an Environmental Impact Assessment, after the Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) sought opinion on the need for such a study.

Egdon said a thorough process will allow it to identify and address potential environmental impacts arising from the proposed activities. Additionally, Egdon plans to engage with the local community and statutory consultees via a virtual public consultation before it finalises the planning application.

Curzon Energy PLC requested a suspension of its shares from Wednesday, November 11, 2020, as it continues to work on a potential transaction with  Sun Seven Stars Investment Group over an envisaged reverse takeover to acquire the London Critical Metals Market.

Earlier this month, an exclusivity period between the parties ended though talks and due diligence work have continued.

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