Oil & Gas Corporate News
Victoria Oil & Gas (BUY, £0.12) (VOG, 6.7p, ? (16.12%)) has raised £10.8m before expenses by way of an equity placing and draw down under its Standby Equity Distribution Agreement (SEDA). The net proceeds will be used to bring forward the expansion phase of the Logbaba Gas Project, Cameroon, to extend the pipeline to the South Eastern and South Western areas of Douala and to facilitate ongoing working capital requirements until Logbaba first gas sales scheduled for Q1 2011. The Company has placed 183,708,612 ordinary shares through Fox-Davies Capital Limited at a price of 4.9p per share for gross proceeds of £9m. The placing price represents a 12% discount to the 5 day VWAP as at the close of business on the 15 November. To enable the Company to issue the placing shares, it needs to renew its authorities to issue ordinary shares. Shareholder approval for this is being sought at the Company's Annual General Meeting, which is to be held at 11.00 a.m. on 30 November 2010. Under its existing authority, the Company has drawn down £1.8m under its existing SEDA facility held with YA Global Master SPV Limited, announced on the 17 June 2009 and issued 40,322,581 shares based on a weighted average market price of 4.8p per share before deductions. In addition, the Company has allotted 23,972,248 shares to its technical advisors, contractors and staff in compensation for work conducted during the last six months, at a weighted average price of 3.2p. The total issued share capital of the Company following the Allotment and the Fund Raising will be 2,104,057,974 shares.
Comment: The placing provides some breathing space to the Company as authorities in Cameroon take longer than expected to award the necessary permits. We are not concerned by the delay and reiterate our Buy recommendation and price target.
Matra Petroleum (LON:MTA) (BUY, £0.07) (MTA, 2.275p, ? (9.0%)) provided an operational update on wells A-12 and A-13. On A-12, although mobilisation of the contracted rig to the well-site had begun the rig has been diverted to a TNK BP operation within Orenburg Oblast and is now expected to be available to begin the side-track programme towards the end of November. The exact date will depend on the completion of TNK-BP's operations. The selected contractor is a specialist in such operations and has successfully…
