Faroe Petroleum Plc (LON:FPM) (FPM, 125p, ? (5.04%)) announced that drilling has commenced on the Maria prospect (Faroe 30%), located in the Norwegian Sea. The Maria prospect (Blocks 6407/1 & 6406/3) is situated on the North East Halten Terrace, between Smørbukk Sør (8 km to the north) and the Trestakk oil fields and the Tyrihans gas fields. Maria consists of two possible accumulations, Maria South and Maria North, located up dip to the southwest and northeast of the 6406/3-5 well respectively. The Maria well will target Maria South. The drilling operation, to be undertaken by the operator Wintershall using the Songa Delta drilling rig, is expected to take approximately 53 days. Licence PL 475BS was awarded in APA 2008 with an initial 2 year period, and a firm well commitment. The current equity holders in the licence are Wintershall Norge ASA 25% (operator), Concedo ASA 10%, Spring Energy Norway AS 15%, Centrica Resources (Norge) 20%, and Faroe Petroleum Norge AS 30%.
 
Tullow Oil Plc (LON:TLW) (TLW, 1108p, ? (3.23%)) announced that it has signed a Heads of Agreement with Staatsolie in relation to Block 47, a 2,369km2 deepwater exploration licence offshore Suriname. Tullow plans to acquire seismic data during 2011 and anticipates that wells will be drilled as part of the Group's medium-term exploration programme in the Equatorial Atlantic region of South America. Tullow will operate the licence with a 100% interest during the exploration phase.  The State Oil Company, Staatsolie, has the option to participate during the development and production phases with a 20% interest.
 
Mining Corporate News
 
Emed Mining Public Ltd (LON:EMED) (BUY, £0.62) (EMED, 9.75p, ? (4.88%)) provided an update on the progress of reports relating to the permitting of the Rio Tinto Mine that are being submitted to the relevant regulatory authorities of the Junta de (Government of) Andalucía. These submissions are being finalised in line with the schedule outlined in the permitting roadmap announced by the Company in December 2009. The restart submissions will now be based on an extended mine life of 14 years along with commitments to exploration drilling to be carried out in the first three years. This exploration is targeted at doubling the current ore reserves. In the announcement, EMED outlined several improvements to the operations at Proyecto Rio Tinto, including modernising the processing plant,…

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