Weekly oil & gas highlights: United Oil & Gas, Bahamas Petroleum, Eco Atlantic, ADM, 88 Energy, Mosman O&G...

United Oil & Gas PLC shares resumed trading in London on Friday alongside the completion of its deal to acquire Rockhopper Exploration PLC’s Egyptian business, securing revenue generating production for the AIM-quoted firm.

"Completing the acquisition of Rockhopper Egypt represents a significant milestone in the development of United, establishing the company as a full-cycle E&P company, and putting us in a strong position for further growth,” said Brian Larkin, United chief executive.

The acquired 22% non-operated stake in the Abu Sennan concession is yielding around 1,700 barrels oil equivalent per day (boepd) – with the underlying operation producing around 7,900 boepd – thanks to the recent addition of a new well (ASH-2).

ASH-2 alone, in December, achieved a rate of 7,027 boepd during testing and it has been onstream, producing more than 3,000 boepd since the start of January.

Explorer Bahamas Petroleum Company PLC shares jumped on Thursday as the firm announced that it has secured environmental authorisation for the Perseverance-1 well, which is expected to spud in April 2020.

The day before, BPC announced a partial conversion of recently issued loan notes.The exploration company last week inked a £8mln arrangement to issue zero-coupon convertible loan notes to a Bahamian based institutional family-office investor. Shortly thereafter it made an initial draw-down of £2.7mln (after fees it received £2.43mln) and it has subsequently received the first conversion notice, for £1.44mln from the first draw-down.

On Wednesday, Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas Ltd told investors it is fully funded and it is pushing for its joint venture partners to commit to at least one new cretaceous exploration well as soon as practically possible.

ADM Energy Plc told investors it has agreed a deal which will see it increase its stake in the OML 113 asset, which includes the Aje field offshore Nigeria. The AIM-quoted firm is acquiring 25% of the interests, rights and obligations held by EER.

In effect, it sees ADM pick up an additional 2.25% participating interest taking its total stake in the asset to 4.9% - correspondingly, its separate revenue and cost bearing interests in the asset will be 9.2% and 12.3% respectively. The transaction sees ADM’s net proved and probable reserves increase to 16.4mln barrels from 8.9mln barrels. Net production will accordingly increase to 273 barrels of oil per day from 148 bopd. ADM is paying US$3mln of which US$2mln will be shares priced at 7p each – and, the first US$250,000 of cash will be paid as deposit.

In Alaska, 88 Energy Ltd shared a number of key facts with investors ahead of the hotly anticipated Charlie-1 well. The company, in a statement, said it had updated its investor presentation to include details about the pending drill programme.

Rig and well teams mobilised earlier this month. Drilling is expected to start in “late February”. The well will be drilled down to a depth of 11,400 feet.

Drilling, logging while drilling, and wireline logging operations are expected to take a total of 30 days to complete. Subsequently, subject to initial results, the well will undergo flow testing with up to two production tests slated. Each test is expected to take 14 days.

Texas-focused junior Mosman Oil And Gas Ltd told investors it has agreed to acquire additional assets in what it described as “the first step to expanding on the success of the Stanley project”.

The acquired acreage is to be known as the “Greater Stanley” area. It comprises two leases, one covers 36 acres and the other spans 35 acres. The total cost of the transaction amounts to around US$30,000.

It is now planned that the next steps will include detailed technical work that may include a well later this year. Meanwhile, the company noted that site preparation is continuing for the Stanley-4 well which is slated for drilling in March.

Plexus Holdings PPC told investors that its Russian licensing partner, Gusar has made an order for more POS-GRIP exploration jack-up drilling wellhead equipment. It follows encouraging discussions between Gusar and its customers, built on momentum from the successful Russian installation of a first POS-GRIP system for Gazprom. Pricing for the equipment was at market rates and payment will be in cash, Plexus said.

The purchase and increase in inventory allows Gusar to service a higher number of contracts in Russia and the CIS markets and reflects the Russian partner’s confidence in the Russian gas jack-up drilling exploration market.

In Tanzania, Solo Oil PLC chief executive Tom Reynolds said the AIM-quoted investment firm is “encouraged” by an update from partner Aminex PLC.

Separately, Aminex revealed it is teeing up their operations in Tanzania in anticipation of the ‘greenlight’ from regulatory authorities. The company, in a statement, also highlighted that there are “positive indications” that Tanzania is re-engaging with the international business community, after a period of reduced corporate engagement, in order to support the country's power demands.

"While we continue to engage in constructive dialogue, Aminex and APT are working diligently to progress workflows such that when the approvals are given, we can quickly move into an operational phase and deliver first gas from Ntorya and begin remediation work on Kiliwani,” said Tom Mackay, Aminex chief executive.

“As of yet, no formal update has been received from the Government of Tanzania in regards to our licences, however we have had positive indications in-country that the government is approaching a place where it can update the international oil companies.”

Tlou Energy Limited told investors that it has received a regulatory document in support of the tender for its coal bed methane venture in Botswana. The written confirmation is from Botswana’s Ministry of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security.

The company said it looks forward to working to finalise the power purchase agreement for the project in due course.

Source: Proactive Investors