Oil & Gas Corporate News
Victoria Oil & Gas (BUY, £0.09) (VOG, 3.87p, ? (3.49%)) announced that Well La-106 was spudded on 6 February 2010 at its Logbaba gas and condensate project in Douala, Cameroon. La-106 is the second well to be drilled by VOG at Logbaba and will twin Well La-101, which was drilled by Elf in 1954. The proposed total depth is approximately 8,700ft and drilling is anticipated to take around 60 days. While La-106 is being drilled, testing of the gas-bearing zones of La-105 will be undertaken and this testing is expected to commence in February.
Comment: La-106 was spudded on time and operations at Logbaba seem to be running smoothly now. Testing of La-105 will start while La-106 is being drilled and not wait for the drilling to be completed, which should speed up the reserves assessment update. La-106 should also now be drilled on the sweet spot unravelled by the passive seismic survey and should penetrate better reservoir that any of the wells drilled previously on Logbaba. If this is the case then the prospect to the North of Logbaba would be materially de-risked and become the next drilling target.
Mediterranean Oil & Gas (MOG, 35p, ? (1.41%)) announced an increase in reserves at its Ombrina Mare field in the central Adriatic. 2P reserves have doubled and now stand at 40mmbbls, including an increase in 1P reserves to 12mmbbls.
Max Petroleum (BUY, £0.50) (MXP, 15.75p, ? (3.28%)) announced that the Company has received approval from the relevant Kazakhstan authority for its 2010 work programme for the Astrakhanskiy Licence, which includes the drilling of the first exploration well in 2010.
Comment: The authorities have waived the 2009 commitment well and approved the 2010 programme submitted by the Company. This removes a major uncertainty and is an important step towards to be able to farm-out the licence. The farm-out is now likely to progress.
Mining Corporate News
Atlantic Coal (BUY, £0.025) (ATC, 0.7p, ? (3.7%)) announced that it has completed a placing of 80,000,000 new ordinary shares of 0.07 pence each in the Company at a price of 0.5p per share, raising £400,000 for the Company. The net proceeds of the Placing, which has been arranged by Allenby Capital Limited, will be used by the Company…
