Oilbarrel Newsletter 7th June 2013

Oilbarrel Weekly Roundup 29th May - 7th June 2013 Next week it's oilbarrel.com's 60th conference in the City of London.  So many companies have presented over the years since our first event in June 2004. Some, like Tullow Oil, which appeared at our  first ever event, have gone on to become real heavyweights on the international stage. Others, like Regal Petroleum, which also appeared at the first event, had a much more troubled decade but are now emerging from some difficult times. Many more, however, have disappeared, too often having burned through shareholders' cash in the process.  Canny investors, however, know that when they come to an oilbarrel.com event, they can get up close and personal with the companies touting for their cash. When an audience has sat through close to 300 presentations, they develop a nose to that can quickly sniff out the risks and opportunities in a business case and whether the management team have the skills and contacts to execute their strategy and deliver returns to shareholders.  The Q&A sessions – and woe betide the presenter who underestimates the oilbarrel.com audience – are another opportunity to interrogate the business case and detect how transparent, or otherwise, the company is being.  Coffee breaks and the excellent buffet lunch present a further opportunity to question management and their advisers, not to mention mixing with the many other oil companies, financiers and consultants that attend a typical oilbarrel.com event and who are often an invaluable source of industry information and gossip. Those who have attended oilbarrel.com events over the years will have certainly benefited from some canny investment picks.  We've already noted Tullow's transformation into FTSE100 heavyweight but portfolio-busting returns have also been delivered from the likes of Burren Energy (bought out by ENI for £1.7 billion in 2007), Cove Energy (acquired last year by Thailand's PTTEP for £1.2 billion  – and interestingly Cove's lauded boss John Craven was a speaker at our first event in 2004 back when he headed Petroceltic, a company which remains a firm favourite with oilbarrel.com regulars), Canada's Coastal Energy, Kurdistan monster explorer Gulf Keystone, heavy oil specialist Xcite Energy and Providence Resources, the catalyst behind the renaissance of offshore Ireland. One of the companies due to present at next week's event, AIM-quoted Oxford Catalysts Group, which has a proprietary modular GTL solution, has seen its share price surge 200 per cent in the 12 months since its first ever appearance at one of our events. Countries, of course, also have their highs and lows when it comes to investor sentiment.  Argentina has had its share of troubles in recent years, with the renationalisation of Repsol-YPF sending shock waves through the international community and the tight export and price caps making life difficult for producers. Yet investors shouldn't write off the opportunities here: it is currently a buyers' market for oil and gas assets, export prices were increased at the start of this year while unconventional resource experts increasingly agree that Argentina could host some of the most significant and productive shales in the world.  We are fortunate to have secured the chairman of the Argentine American Chamber of Commerce, Carlos Alfaro, as guest speaker at our conference on Thursday June 13, who will update delegates on some of the latest changes in the country and the opportunities on offer.  Given that a number of companies in the London oil community, including Andes Energia and President Petroleum, have significant exposure to Argentina, this is a presentation not to be missed. Book your seat now by emailing support@oilbarrel.com 60th Oilbarrel Conference Thursday 13th June 2013 Sponsored By Thursday 13th June 2013 ***NEW VENUE*** The Brewery Chiswell Street London EC1Y 4SD (Nearest stations are Moorgate, Barbican and Liverpool Street) Presenting Companies Include: MEC Resources Limited Oxford Catalysts Alumni Oil ***Guest Speaker*** Carlos Alfaro, Chairman of the Argentine American Chamber of Commerce Click Here to Register or contact support@oilbarrel.com If you are interested in Speaking or Sponsoring an Oilbarrel event  please contact; Sophie Barrowman - sophie.barrowman@oilbarrel.com T: 02075623362   Latest News News: June 06, 2013 Frontier Explorer Central Petroleum Targets Maiden Production By Year End A couple of years ago, it looked liked Central Petroleum wasn't going anywhere fast. Despite amassing an early mover acreage position in central Australia, much of it bagged a decade ago at bargain prices, the ASX-quoted company was battling cash constraints and partner problems that meant it lacked the resources to test whether this vast emptiness might have the resource scale to overcome its remoteness.  But the company clung on, even making a small but commercial oil strike, until the market caught up: now Big Oil is moving into these empty frontiers. Full story... News: June 06, 2013 Nighthawk Energy Rallies As Well Results Continue To Impress From Arikaree Creek Nighthawk Energy's appearance at May's oilbarrel.com conference in the City of London, ably presented by chairman Stephen Gutteridge, was a real turn around story.  As Gutteridge himself made clear, this was a company that was dead on its feet at the end of 2011, with a poorly planned drilling campaign burning through cash and its Jolly Ranch shale play in Colorado producing just a 30 bpd dribble Full story... News: June 05, 2013 IGas Sees Potential For 170 TCF of Gas-in-place On Its Bowland Shale Acreage For many years IGas was very insistent that it was a coal bed methane player and any shale gas that might lie beneath its licences across the north of England and Wales was purely incidental. Increasingly, however, the AIM-quoted company has been making headlines not for its pilot CBM production, which includes the only CBM-to-wire project in the UK, but for the potentially vast shale gas resources on its acreage. Full story... News: June 05, 2013 Jupiter Energy Raise A Further US$9 million To Progress Its Assets In Kazakhstan It was always clear that Jupiter Energy was going to need new funding to develop its assets in Kazakhstan. When it released some production guidance at the beginning of April following a string of low cost low risk discoveries, it also announced that although it had US$4 million in cash at the outset of 2013, it was raising US$3million through three promissory notes to one of its backers, Mobile Energy and increasing its exposure to Mobile to US$ 6million Full story... News: June 04, 2013 Resaca Exploitation Runs Out Of Options And Agrees To Sell Permian Basin Assets For US$72 Million To Head Off Bankruptcy Sad but not unsurprising news for holders of Resaca Exploitation last week after the company announced a fire sale of its assets to pay off its creditors to be followed by a de-listing from AIM and a voluntary liquidation. Shares in the company took another heavy hit on the news, dropping to 3.5 pence, a fraction of the 52-week high of 40.5 pence. Full story... News: June 04, 2013 Fastnet Oil & Gas Adds More Moroccan Acreage To Its Portfolio and Reports On Its Resource Estimates For Its Deep Kinsale Prospect Offshore Ireland Fastnet Oil & Gas, which IPO-ed on London’s AIM in June 2012 with backing from some of the team behind Cove Energy -- the AIM start-up that went stratospheric on back of giant gas finds offshore Tanzania --  has been attracting attention mostly on the progress it has made in Morocco. It has secured large tracts of exploration acreage in the North African country. Full story... Features: June 03, 2013 Poweralternatives: CompactGTL Expects First FEED Award This Year As Modular Gas-to-Liquids Solutions Continue To Gain Traction For decades small scale gas-to-liquids technology has been mooted as a solution to the problem of stranded gas pools and wasteful gas flaring. And, for decades, it has been a technology confined to Power Point presentations and labscale prototypes.  In recent years, however, there have been some significant advances – they haven't come easily or cheaply but they do appear to be on the cusp of commercialisation. Full story... News: June 03, 2013 Northcote Energy Gives Positive Frac Update From Its Horizon Project In Oklahoma News that AIM minnow Northcote Energy has released a very positive update on the fracture stimulation of the Big Hill #1 well at its flagship Horizon project in Oklahoma suggests that its strategy of developing -- in a low- cost low-risk way-- hitherto under-exploited shale oil and gas onshore the US, has started to work. Full story... Market Overview: May 31, 2013 OPEC Holds Its Output Quotas Steady As Oil Prices Appear To Stabilise A sense of stability on the oil market and cautiously positive signs of economic growth were the combining factors that led OPEC ministers to leave output unchanged at 30 million barrels a day in Vienna. In afternoon trading on Friday, Brent crude was holding above US$101 and WTI priced below US$93 a barrel Full story... News: May 30, 2013 Leyshon Resources Boosted By Better Than Expected Test Rate From Unconventional Gas Well In China Shares in ASX- and AIM-quoted Leyshon Resources jumped more than 25 per cent in morning trading on Tuesday following better than expected flow results from a test well on its unconventional gas project in China.  A single zone in the fracked ZJS5 well on the Zijinshan gas project in the prolific Ordos Basin flowed free gas of 160,000 feet per day over an eight hour period. This isn't a lot of gas but the rate was significantly better than management's estimate that a commercial flow from a single zone would be 125,000 cf/d Full story... News: May 30, 2013 Gulf Keystone Petroleum Splits Kozel's Role As It Readies To Upgrade To Full Listing On LSE In a much-heralded move, Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) has confirmed that it is applying for a full listing on the London Stock Exchange.  The promotion from AIM has long been expected after the company's monster Shaikan oil strike of 2009 created a legion of followers and catapaulted the former minnow to into the £1 billion plus market cap league. But the Main Board isn't for pure explorers and the fact the Bermuda-based company is now making the move is a reflection of the rising tide of oil it expects to flow from its Kurdistan discoveries in the coming years. Full story... Press releases June 07, 2013 - Frontera Resources Results of Annual General Meeting  June 07, 2013 - Chariot Oil and Gas Ltd Licence Extension in Southern Block 2714A June 07, 2013 - Lochard Energy Operational update and offer by The... June 07, 2013 - Nostra Terra Oil & Gas Company PLC Notice of AGM June 07, 2013 - BG Group Third FPSO vessel on-stream in Santos Basin  June 07, 2013 - Petroceltic International Board Change  June 06, 2013 - Regal Petroleum Ukraine Operations Update  June 06, 2013 - Urals Energy Final Results June 06, 2013 - Frontera Resources Operations Update  June 06, 2013 - Falkland Oil and Gas Limited Operations Update - 3D Seismic Acquisition  June 06, 2013 - Amerisur Resources Operational Update June 06, 2013 - Geopark Holdings Ltd New exploration discovery in Colombia June 06, 2013 - Neon Energy Ltd Vietnam Block 120 Investor Update June 06, 2013 - Simba Energy Inc SIMBA ENERGY ANNOUNCES TECHNICAL APPOINTMENT June 05, 2013 - North American Petroleum Update on Operations in Mississippi Lime... June 05, 2013 - Green Dragon Gas Disposal and Issue of Bonds and Warrants June 05, 2013 - Magnolia Petroleum Production Commenced at Operated Well in... June 05, 2013 - Ithaca Energy Inc Notice of Annual & Special Meeting June 05, 2013 - Iofina Plc Posting of Annual Report and Notice of AGM  June 05, 2013 - Mediterranean Oil & Gas Update on Canoel International Energy... June 05, 2013 - Xtract Energy Plc CFO Appointment June 05, 2013 - Gold Oil Plc Notice of AGM June 05, 2013 - PA Resources UK Limited Notice of the extraordinary general... June 05, 2013 - Ceramic Fuel Cells Notice of Extraordinary General Meeting June 05, 2013 - Wasabi Energy ASX Compliance  June 04, 2013 - Green Dragon Gas Notice of Results  June 04, 2013 - Central Petroleum Ltd Surprise Development  June 04, 2013 - Matra Petroleum Full Year Results and Notice of AGM June 04, 2013 - Sefton Resources Kansas Exploration & Production Operations... June 04, 2013 - Sound Oil PLC Posting of Annual Report and Notice of AGM June 04, 2013 - Enegi Oil Garden Hill Field Update June 04, 2013 - Union Jack Oil Union Jack Oil agrees purchase terms for... June 04, 2013 - Nighthawk Energy plc Drilling and Development Update June 04, 2013 - Sound Oil PLC Posting of Annual Report and Notice of AGM June 03, 2013 - Range Resources Atzam #4 Update - Significant Initial Oil... June 03, 2013 - Ophir Energy plc Total Voting Rights  June 03, 2013 - Trap Oil Exercise and Grant of Options  June 03, 2013 - Quadrise Fuels International Central and South America June 03, 2013 - IGas Plc Shale Gas In Place June 03, 2013 - Max Petroleum Drilling Update June 03, 2013 - Mediterranean Oil & Gas New Exploration Opportunity June 03, 2013 - Madagascar Oil TR-1: Notification of Major Interest in... June 03, 2013 - Borders & Southern Petroleum Notice of AGM June 03, 2013 - Jubilant Energy Successful Test Results May 31, 2013 - Falkland Oil and Gas Limited Annual Report and Financial Statements  May 31, 2013 - Jupiter Energy Limited New Funding Arrangement May 31, 2013 - Xcite Energy Resources Limited Cancellation of Rowan Rig Option  May 31, 2013 - Nostra Terra Oil & Gas Company PLC High Plains interest increased to 20%  May 31, 2013 - San Leon Energy Total Voting Rights May 31, 2013 - SacOil Holdings Suspension to trading of shares May 31, 2013 - Geopark Holdings Ltd First Quarter Financial Report May 31, 2013 - Austin Exploration Austin Farm Out To Develop Eagle Ford May 31, 2013 - Wasabi Energy Supplemental Prospectus May 31, 2013 - Wasabi Energy Asian Expansion and JV Don't forget to visit our other website

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