Oil & Gas Corporate News
Borders & Southern Petroleum (BUY, £1.50) (BOR, 66.25p, ? (0.75%)) announced that it has signed a contract with Ocean Rig UDW Inc. for the provision of mobile drilling rig services using the Eirik Raude drilling unit, a dynamically positioned, harsh environment semi-submersible. On completion of its current contract in West Africa in October 2011, the rig will be mobilised to the Falkland Islands to commence a two well drilling programme. The wells on the Darwin and Stebbing prospects are currently estimated to take approximately 45 days each. The contract allows for up to three option wells. Within the last year, Borders & Southern has appointed a drilling manager for the campaign and has contracted AGR Peak Well Management Ltd to perform well engineering, procurement, service contracting and operations supervision. Initial well designs for Darwin and Stebbing are already well advanced and we expect to order subsea wellhead systems and casing strings shortly. Detailed well planning and the contracting of third party services will also commence shortly.
Cove Energy (LON:COV) (COV, 88p, ? (1.15%)) announced another major gas discovery at the Lagosta prospect in the Rovuma Basin Area 1 block, Offshore Mozambique. The discovery well encountered a total of more than 550 net feet of natural gas pay in multiple high-quality Oligocene and Eocene sands. The Lagosta discovery, located approximately 16 miles to the south of the previously announced Barquentine discovery and 14 miles to the southeast of the Windjammer discovery, significantly expands this emerging world-class natural gas province. Although additional appraisal drilling will be required, it is believed the three discoveries announced to date already exceed the resource size threshold necessary to support an LNG development, and an integrated project team has been assigned to begin advancing commercialization options. Given the global LNG trade and its indexing to the global crude market, this resource can provide tremendous economic value for the people of Mozambique, the government and the partnership. The Lagosta discovery validates the seismic predictive methodology used and increases the chance of future drilling success, hence the Belford Dolphin drillship is to remain in Area 1 Rovuma Offshore for the foreseeable future.
Salamander Energy Plc (LON:SMDR) (SMDR, 233.1p, ? (1.23%)) announced that the Angklung-1 exploration well in the Bontang PSC, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, has been…
