Executive Summary
Circle Oil PLC (LON:COP) is a gas and oil business headquartered in the Republic of Ireland. Its business interests include the exploration, development and production of oil and gas, with interests in Morocco, Namibia, Oman, Panama and Tunisia. Circle Oil's (COP) business model involves the obtaining of licences in new hydrocarbon areas to then potentially form joint ventures to proceed to the development and production of gas and oil. The company also actively seeks to aquire medium sized gas and oil reserves that it believes have development and production potential. Circle Oil (COP) has been listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange since 2004.
Company History
- The Company's shares were listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange in October 2004.
- Originally the portfolio and focus was on "frontier" or high impact licences with acreage acquired in Oman and Namibia particularly prominent.
- In 2006 the focus shifted towards development work and getting production on board. To that end Egypt and Morocco have seen the most "action", together with Tunisia.
Current Events
- Work plans are set out in detail in a presentation on the Circle web-site [1] . Slide 19 shows the work plan and slide 20 shows the time line
- Last year the company conducted a placing (Sept) raising £33m mainly with two sharehodlers, Kaupthing (who now have 15%) and more interestingly, Libya Oil Holdings who have 29% of the shares.
- As part of the deal, LOH and Circle are looking to find projects on which that can work together.
Business Model
The Company's strategy is to locate and secure licences in the new hydrocarbon provinces with the objective of bringing these licences up to farm-out status through minimal work programmes. The Company may then negotiate joint ventures or similar arrangements wit other companies involved in oil and gas development and production to facilitate significant work programmes with a view to limiting the Company's direct financial outlay to the extent practicable whilst maximising potential returns. At the same time, the Company intends to actively pursue the acquisition of medium sized hydrocarbon reserves and resources which the Company believes, with its technical expertise, could be developed or upgraded within its financial capacity or in partnership with others.
Production/Operations
Drilling Activity
Since the placing last year, these are the wells…
