Oil & Gas Corporate News
Desire Petroleum (LON:DES) plc (UNDER REVIEW, £0.40) (DES, 11.75p, ? 2.17%) provided an update on its exploration activities. The Company's 3D seismic acquisition programme is now complete and the full-fold area of coverage is approximately 1,416km2 in Tranches C, D, F and adjacent open areas. Combined with Desire's existing 3D data, these new data provide almost full coverage of the East Flank Play Fairway on Desire's acreage and extended coverage of the Liz area, Ann, Pam and Helen prospects. A planned extension of the survey to the south was curtailed due to poor weather conditions. The fully processed data for the northern part of Tranche D and the Ann prospect area are being fast-tracked and are expected to be available in July. A fully merged data set covering all prospective areas is expected to be available towards the end of 2011. However the preliminary raw stack data have been received for the area at the northern end of Tranches C and D and the initial indications for new prospects are encouraging. In particular, two new leads, Beverley and Shona, have been identified so far. The Shona lead is at the same stratigraphic level as the Rockhopper Sea Lion discovery and extends northwards to the block boundary of Tranche D, while the Beverley lead is at a shallower stratigraphic level and is mapped wholly within Tranche D.
Salamander Energy (LON:SMDR) plc (SMDR, 285p, ? 0.85%) announced that it has executed an agreement to farm-out a 20% interest in Block 101-100/04, Offshore Northern Vietnam to JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corporation ("JX-NOEX"). Block 101-100/04 is operated by Salamander and contains the Cat Ba oil prospect that will be tested with the CB-1X well in Q3 2011. JX-NOEX will earn a 20% working interest in Block 101-100/04 from Salamander through funding a promoted cost of the CB-1X well. The Cat Ba oil prospect has oil potential in both basement and in the overlying clastics, and has a mean prospective resource of c. 100 MMbo. It is an analogue to the neighbouring Ham Rong oil field, declared commercial by Petronas in 2010. The prospect will be tested by the CB-1X exploration well, to be drilled in July 2011, using the Aquamarine Driller jack-up drilling unit. Chariot Oil & Gas Limited (CHAR, 226p, ? 3.20%) announced its…
