Oilbarrel Newsletter 8th November 2012

Oilbarrel Weekly Roundup 31st October - 8th November 2012 Weekly Review As we said in our newsletter last week, our 55th OIlbarrel.com conference, which marks our return to The Brewery in Chiswell Street as a venue, looks like being a corker of an event. We have a strong card of companies lined up, some of them familiar to Oilbarrel regulars; some of them new.  All of them have interesting stories to tell. They include Faroe Petroleum, Bridge Energy, Chariot Oil & Gas, Argos Resources, President Petroleum and Eland Oil & Gas. At the last count 335 people had registered to attend. This is beginning to suggest we could get a record turnout. However, on this occasion there will not be issues of breaking fire regulations through overcrowding which has bedevilled us at The Brewery in the past. We have booked a very large room this time. It should be a lively gathering. Talking of conferences, Oilbarrel last week attended Renewable UK’s Annual Conference and Exhibition held at the SECC in Glasgow. RenewableUK is the trade and professional body for the UK wind and marine renewable industries.  The gathering was advertised as “The UK’s Premier Renewable Energy Event”.  Certainly there were a lot of people there, around 1,200, in fact. They included Alex Salmond, Scotland’s redoubtable First Minister. He says he wants to rid Scotland of nuclear plants country as his minority government conducts a campaign which he hopes will result in independence from the UK for the 5 million or so Scots. He is said to be fanatically in favour of wind power.  His enthusiasm at one point threatened to turn the gathering into a little farce. Salmond’s speech to the meeting on the opening afternoon of October 30 was typically gung ho about wind farms. He said that when he became First Minister in 2007, he inherited a target of 50 per cent of Scotland’s electricity to be supplied by renewables by 2020. He went on to say that Scotland exceeded it’s interim target of 31 per cent by 2011, creating 35 per cent instead. Salmond believes there are 131 wind farms in Scotland at the moment, around 40 per cent of the UK’s total. But if all those planned go ahead there would be 435 with the number of turbines rising from 1,657 to 4,784 onshore. This should be enough to set “ambitious but realisable new targets” Salmond said. He wanted Scotland to produce 50 per cent of its electricity from renewables by 2015 and 100 per cent by 2020. The target for the UK as a whole is 20 per cent by 2020. Wave and tidal power is still some way off-- years away—from being commercial. Scotland has hydroelectric power but Salmond did not mention this. Nor did he mention that few wind farms were fully commissioned to run 24 hours a day. Intermittency means that conventional power companies, particularly gas companies can make a fortune from what is known as “power sourcing”  that is, being on standby for when the wind does not blow or does not blow hard enough. Predictably enough he did not say that some of his senior colleagues are thought to feel he is wrong to put all his eggs in one basket by backing wind power so voraciously. Salmond is perceived by critics as wanting, not only independence for Scotland but independence for himself from any of his colleagues who disagree with him. But he was preaching to the converted here. All was sweetness and light. Or it was sweetness and light until one John Hayes MP pitched up. He is the Tory backwoodsman who is currently the junior energy minster in the Westminster coalition. He was expected to make a speech at a conference reception in the evening of October 30 more or less rubber stamping Salmond’s speech. But things did not quite work out like that. 2011/2012 had been an active year for wind power throughout the UK. According to RenewableUK wind energy capacity in 2011/2012 in the UK rose by a quarter to 1,825 MW. For the first time in five years the UK also saw a rise in the number of onshore wind farm proposals approved by councils, up to a record 1,701MW compared to 1,42MW in 2010/2011, a leap of nearly 50 per cent. This trend had clearly rattled Mr Hayes. The speech he drafted was in stark contrast to Mr Salmond’s enthusiasm. He said: “If you look at what has been built, what has consent and what is in the planning system, much of which will not get through and will be rejected.... even if  a minority of what’s in the system is built, we are going to reach our 2020 target. I’m saying enough is enough.”  He called for a moratorium on consents. Hayes indicated he has commissioned research on the impact of turbines on rural landscapes and house prices, as well as complaints about noise.  He said: “We can no longer have wind farms imposed on communities, he added. I cannot singlehandedly build a new Jerusalem but I can protect our green and pleasant land. In the event this inflammatory speech was not made. Hayes’s boss Ed Davey, the Lib Dem Minister at the Department of Energy And Climate Change (DECC) got wind of it  (excuse the pun) gave Hayes  a bo-------king and told him  to shut up. Hayes made anodyne remarks at the reception. But the damage was done. Hayes had leaked the speech to the Daily Torygraph, I mean Telegraph and the anti-Salmond Daily Mail. Next morning the Scottish Daily Mail had a screaming front page headline saying “Left Swinging In The Wind”. Inside the paper there was a full page of reports on wind farms, and a curmudgeonly editorial haranguing Salmond and explaining why wind farms do not work. All this hardly amounts to an international incident likely to lead to World War Three. But it does mean the Westminster coalition has another fault line running through it about axe-wide as the Grand Canyon, which is something it does not need.   As Danny Fortson, the London Sunday Times environment reporter put it in the newspaper last weekend: “It would have been funny if Hayes’s ‘enough is enough’ speech and the coalition chaos that ensued had been a one off. Sadly this it is not. “Britain’s energy policy is a shambles. Coal and oil- fired power stations capable of producing power for 7 million homes are due to shut within the next few months – that’s about 8 per cent of national capacity. Several others are expected to announce their closure soon. “The dearth of replacements is a result of the dire lack of clear policy on everything from green subsidies to pollution taxes, power bosses argue. 55th Oilbarrel Conference Tuesday 13th November 2012 Sponsored By: Tuesday 13th November 2012 ***NEW VENUE*** The Brewery Chiswell Street London EC1Y 4SD (Nearest stations are Moorgate and Liverpool Street) Presenting Companies Include: Eland Oil and Gas Faroe Petroleum Bridge Energy Chariot Oil & Gas Argos Resources President Petroleum Click Here to Register or contact support@oilbarrel.com Latest News News: November 08, 2012 Fastnet Oil & Gas Pleases Investors With Prospect Of Near-Term Drilling Onshore Morocco AIM newcomer Fastnet Oil & Gas is building a reputation as a frontier explorer, with its portfolio skewed towards emerging plays offshore Ireland and Morocco.  This strategy plays well to the investor base, many of whom piled into the June IPO because Fastnet’s management includes the team behind AIM star Cove Energy, which in less than three years transformed from exploration start-up to £1.2 billion must-have acquisition on the back of giant gas discoveries in East Africa. Full story... News: November 08, 2012 Enegi Oil Makes North Sea Debut To Test Potential Of Low Cost Buoy Technology   Change is afoot at Enegi Oil, the AIM-quoted company that has spent the last five years battling to bring its Garden Hill South (GHS) field on the neglected west coast of Newfoundland onstream.  While its Canadian venture continues to inch ahead – the recent appointment of a new COO, ex-BP executive Derek Cochrane, was a signal of the company’s intent to finally get to grips with this complex project –investors are welcoming steps to diversify a portfolio that until recently was dominated by the fortunes of Garden Hill South. Full story... News: November 07, 2012 Tullow Oil Confirms A Second Oil Discovery Onshore Kenya Earlier this year Tullow Oil opened up a new front in Africa’s black gold rush.  Having already put Uganda and Ghana on the map, countries previously bypassed by the industry, Tullow’a Ngamia-1 oil strike ensured Kenya is now a favoured destination for reserves-hunters. Full story... News: November 07, 2012 Valiant Petroleum Seeks To Rewrite Patchy Exploration Record With High Impact Wells In 2013 As Strategic Review Continues We reported recently how confidence is slowly starting to return to the North Sea after the fiscal shocks of the past decade.  New tax allowances, promised clarity on the decommissioning burden and 18 months of robust industry consultation have help soothe investor fears that the UKCS was becoming an expensive and unreliable place to do business.  The recently released results of the 27th licensing round further signaled this change, with a record number of blocks taken up by companies. Full story... News: November 06, 2012 Roxi Petroleum Secures Deep Rig For December Spud Date Good news and not-so-good news for Roxi Petroleum recently.  Having finally landed a deep pocketed farm-in partner to kick-start drilling on its under-worked acreage in Kazakhstan, the company has also now bagged a rig to spud its first deep well on the BNG licence.  The well, which will drill to 4,700 metres to target Permian/Carboniferous aged reservoirs, is expected to spud in December.  The rig contract is on a turn-key basis, providing the welcome reassurance of a fixed price agreement for the deep hole. Full story... News: November 06, 2012 New World Oil & Gas Announces Good Progress with Drilling Operations At The B Crest Prospect on the Company’s Blue Creek Project in Belize To say that the business plan practiced by New World Oil & Gas  --  a model that has brought the AIM start up possibly within reach of a company-making discovery with its first trip out the drillbit -- is unique, is an exaggeration. But if the model is not unique it is certainly very rare. Full story... News: November 05, 2012 Lower Oil Prices Dent Oil Majors’ Q3 Numbers While BG Group Looks Vulnerable Following Another Production Downgrade Third quarter financials from the oil majors were skewed by lower commodity prices – not that hard pressed consumers will have noticed any significant drop. Shell’s Q3 earnings, for example, were a US$1 billion lower than a year ago, at just over US$6 billion compared to US$7.2 billion in Q3 2011.  Exxon’s earnings were down seven per cent at US$9.57 billion.  BP bucked the trend as the supermajor continues its recovery from the Macondo disaster of 2010; its underlying 3Q 2012 replacement cost profit up 40 per cent on the previous quarter at US$5.2 billion and only slightly down on the US$5.5 billion reported in Q3 2011 prior to a number of significant disposals. Full story... News: November 05, 2012 Nighthawk Energy Racks Up Another Success In Its First New Drilling Campaign In Nearly Three Years Back in August when we reported on Nighthawk Energy we said all eyes would be on the new wells. Stephen Gutteridge, the chairman of Nighthawk, commented earlier in that month: “We continue to make progress on all aspects of the Jolly Ranch project, a considerable achievement given the problems we inherited from the previous operator. Production is gradually improving although it is clear that achieving a substantial step up in rates requires success with the new wells and we are looking forward to the drilling later in August”. Full story... Market Overview: November 02, 2012 Oil Prices Rebound Sharply After A Surprise Drop In Stocks What a difference a week makes. From the doom and gloom and a seemingly non-stop downward trend of last week, the oil markets rebounded thanks to a surprise drop in stocks and better economic news. In early trading on Friday, Brent crude was trading above US$108 with WTI just below US$97 a barrel. Full story... News: November 01, 2012 Providence Resources Looks To Build On Barryroe Success As Its Offshore Ireland Campaign Steps Up A Gear In 2013 Two years ago, when Providence Resources unveiled plans for a multi-well, multi-basin campaign offshore Ireland, few investors can have anticipated just how successful this strategy would be.  Even chief executive Tony O’Reilly, a long-time evangelist for the overlooked potential of offshore Ireland, has found recent events have exceeded expectations. Full story... News: November 01, 2012 GeoGlobal Gets Busy With The Drillbit But Israel Offshore Results Disappoint The emergence of the eastern Mediterranean as a big gas play in recent years, following the discovery of huge fields off Israel and Cyprus, has generated massive interest among foreign and local explorers.The trouble is, amidst all the excitement - which includes the discovery of Israel’s giant Leviathan field, the biggest single gas find in a decade anywhere in the world - there are bound to be a few hiccups along the way. Full story... News: October 31, 2012 Ascent Resources In Farm-Out Talks As Key Loan Remains On Hold To the uninitiated, these may seem like halcyon times for oil and gas companies.  After all, oil prices remain high at around US$100 a barrel, gas prices, at least in Europe, are gaining strength and the industry continues to confound all expectations by finding new sources of supply, be it liquids-rich shale plays that are revolutionising energy economics in north America, the giant gas fields off the east coast of Africa or the new “transform” plays along the Atlantic Margins of West Africa and South America. Full story.. Press releases November 08, 2012 - Global Energy Development Engagement of financial advisor November 08, 2012 - Spitfire Oil PRELIMINARY RESULTS November 08, 2012 - Hardy Oil & Gas Plc Interim Management Statement  November 08, 2012 - New World Oil & Gas Drilling Update, Belize November 08, 2012 - Global Petroleum Director/PDMR Shareholding  November 08, 2012 - Gulf Keystone Petroleum Sheikh Adi-2 Exploration Well Discovery November 08, 2012 - Green Dragon Gas Operations Update November 08, 2012 - Sound Oil PLC Nervesa EIA Approval November 07, 2012 - Fastnet Oil & Gas Exercise of option in Merada Licence... November 07, 2012 - Urals Energy Arbitration update and tanker loading November 07, 2012 - 3Legs Resources Operational Update  November 07, 2012 - Coastal Energy Co Response to Trading Activity  November 07, 2012 - PA Resources UK Limited PA Resources strengthens equity by... November 07, 2012 - PA Resources UK Limited PA Resources Interim Report for... November 07, 2012 - Fastnet Oil & Gas Exercise of option in Merada Licence... November 07, 2012 - Coastal Energy Co Response to Trading Activity  November 07, 2012 - 3Legs Resources plc Operations on Baltic Basin concessions in... November 07, 2012 - Texon Petroleum Ltd Current Drilling Wells Update November 06, 2012 - Victoria Oil & Gas Plc Second Price Monitoring Extn  November 06, 2012 - Victoria Oil & Gas Plc Price Monitoring Extension  November 06, 2012 - Eland Oil & Gas Plc Holding(s) in Company  November 06, 2012 - Tullow Oil plc Block Listing Six Monthly Return  November 06, 2012 - Ceres Power Holdings Wind down of Business November 06, 2012 - Kea Petroleum PLC Posting of Annual Report and Notice of AGM November 06, 2012 - FX Energy Inc FX Energy Reports Frankowo-1 Well Flows... November 06, 2012 - Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings)... Positive Update on Irish Atlantic Margin... November 06, 2012 - President Energy PLC Total Voting Rights and Share Capital November 06, 2012 - Serica Energy plc Results of Spaniards East Well November 06, 2012 - Petroceltic International Operations Update - 10 Wells Planned over... November 06, 2012 - Bowleven Plc Etinde Strategic Alliance November 06, 2012 - Bowleven Plc Preliminary Results Announcement November 06, 2012 - BG GROUP plc Sale of Comgas stake completed November 06, 2012 - Caza Oil & Gas, Inc Operational Update - Caza Ridge Bone... November 06, 2012 - Nighthawk Energy plc Holding(s) in Company November 06, 2012 - Chariot Oil and Gas Ltd Board Changes November 06, 2012 - President Energy PLC NOTIFICATION OF MAJOR INTEREST IN SHARES  November 06, 2012 - President Energy PLC TR-1 Notification November 06, 2012 - Faroe Petroleum Results of Spaniards exploration well November 06, 2012 - Petroceltic International Operations Update November 06, 2012 - Central Petroleum Ltd Central farmout to Total for Southern... November 05, 2012 - Petroneft Resources Plc Holding(s) in Company  November 05, 2012 - Mercom Oil Sands Update on Farm-in Agreement with Nordic... November 05, 2012 - Leni Gas & Oil Plc Sale of Leases, Gulf of Mexico  November 05, 2012 - Egdon Resources Final Results for the Year Ended 31 July... November 05, 2012 - Resaca Exploitation Inc 2012 Final Results  November 05, 2012 - Ithaca Energy Inc Holding(s) in Company  November 05, 2012 - Nighthawk Energy plc Holding(s) in Company  November 05, 2012 - Oxford Catalysts Mourik Agreement for Commercial Catalyst... November 05, 2012 - FX Energy Inc FX Energy Reports Frankowo-1 Well Flows... November 02, 2012 - Ceramic Fuel Cells Issue of shares to CCTC November 02, 2012 - Rockhopper Exploration Extension of Licences November 02, 2012 - Faroe Petroleum Relinquishment of West of Shetland P1161... November 02, 2012 - Sound Oil PLC Investor Engagements November 02, 2012 - Sefton Resources Southern Star-LAGGS operationally certified November 02, 2012 - Exillon Energy nterim Management Statement November 02, 2012 - New World Oil & Gas Issue of Equity and Directors' Dealings November 01, 2012 - Range Resources Miscellaneous November 01, 2012 - Europa Oil & Gas Holmwood Prospect Appeal Decision to be... November 01, 2012 - Rockhopper Exploration Total Voting Rights  November 01, 2012 - Ophir Energy OPHIR ENERGY PLC: Total Voting Rights  November 01, 2012 - Soco International Interim Management Statement November 01, 2012 - Circle Oil plc Operating Update Tunisia  November 01, 2012 - Nighthawk Energy plc Drilling Update  November 01, 2012 - Silvermere Energy PLC Operations Update November 01, 2012 - Nostra Terra Oil & Gas Company PLC Bale Creek Drilling Update November 01, 2012 - Genel Energy Interim Management Statement  November 01, 2012 - Max Petroleum Holding(s) in Company November 01, 2012 - FX Energy Inc FX Energy Schedules Third Quarter 2012... Don't forget to visit our other website

You are receiving this e-mail because you have either registered to receive e-mails from us on our website or you have attended a past Oilbarrel Conference.

If you would like to unsubscribe from our e-mails or have any queries about the website or our events, please contact support@oilbarrel.com.