Fox Davies Capital Update featuring Ascent Resources, Gulfsands Petroleum, Providence Resources, Beacon Hill Resources, Red Rock Resources and Allied Gold

Oil & Gas Corporate News

Ascent Resources (LON:AST) (BUY, £0.20) (AST, 3.88p, ? (6.06%)) announced its final results for the year ended 31 December 2009 with a gross loss of £219,000 vs a gross profit of £38,000 in 2008. Cash at period end is £4.6m.

Comment: More importantly the Company highlighted the opportunities for 2010 with a focus on the Petisovci-Lovsázi project in Slovenia and Hungary where substantial gas reserves are estimated following positive 3D seismic processing and interpretation. A number of important transactions have been completed cleaning up the portfolio and providing much needed cash while preserving some upside for the future, e.g. sale of Swiss subsidiary as well as the sale of share in Perazzoli Drilling.

Gulfsands Petroleum (LON:GPX) (HOLD, £3.00) (GPX, 285.25p, ? (1.04%)) announced that, further to the announcement on 22 March 2010, the Company has signed the farm-in agreement to acquire working interest positions in an exploration permit in Tunisia (Kerkouane Permit) and an adjacent exploration permit in Southern Italy (G.R15.PU, known as the Pantelleria Licence) from subsidiaries of AuDAX Resources Ltd. Gulfsands has earned the right to acquire a 20% working interest in both permits by paying 30% of the cost of the recent 3D seismic programme, and has the option to earn an additional 10% in both permits with payment of an additional 15% of the initial well cost, with this option required to be exercised prior to the spud of the first exploration well. The gross cost of the seismic programme was approximately US$5.2m and the gross cost of the Lambouka exploration well is approximately US$20m.

Enegi Oil (LON:ENEG) (SELL, £0.10) (ENEG, 20.25p, ? (9.0%)) confirmed that preliminary analysis suggests that "Green Point Shale" extends offshore from EL1070 to onshore PL2002-01, and covers an area of approximately 24km2 in the north-eastern part of PL2002-01. Having Green Point Shale in PL2002-01 adds the possibility of an unconventional shale play to the Company's assets, and furthermore, the play can be accessed from onshore. However, further analysis is required to determine more accurately the full areal extent, total thickness, and thermal maturity levels of the Green Point Shale in the Company's assets and its significance. The Company continues to prepare the Garden Hill South site for the acid fracturing previously announced and will update the market in the near future.

Heritage Oil (LON:HOIL) (HOIL, 464.9p, ? (0.02%)) published an interim management statement in which it indicated that the approval from the Ugandan Government for the disposal of the interests in Uganda is expected within the next couple of weeks. The completion of the transaction should follow shortly thereafter as well as the distribution of a 75p-100p dividend. Exploration drilling of the Miran West-2 well is still scheduled to be completed in Q3 2010 with appraisal testing to resume on completion of the deeper exploration drilling. Production from Russia in Q1 2010 averaged 583 bopd, 77% higher than the daily average for 2009. As at 31 March 2010, Heritage's cash position was approximately US$170m.

Providence Resources (LON:PVR) (PVR, 2.98p, ? (1.02%)) announced that it has completed a technical assessment of the heavy oil potential which underlies the Ardmore gas field. The Ardmore field is located in Standard Exploration Licence (SEL) 2/07 in the North Celtic Sea Basin and is situated c. 60km off the south coast of Ireland in c. 90m water depth. The re-evaluation within the Ardmore oil leg, which is based on a recently acquired 2006 3D seismic survey, has now been completed and suggests an in place resource potential of up to c. 230MMboe. Providence holds a 72.5% operated interest in SEL 2/07 with partners Atlantic Petroleum (18.3%) and Sosina Exploration (9.2%).

Mining Corporate News

Beacon Hill Resources (LON:BHR) (BHR, 4.63p, ? (2.63%)) announced that all conditions relating to the acquisition of Minas Moatize LDA, which owns and operates a coal mine in the Tete Province of Mozambique, have been satisfied and the acquisition has now been completed by BHR Mining Limited, Beacon Hill's 49% owned associate, in which the Group has an option giving exclusive right to increase its interest to 75%. BHR Mining will now immediately commence development work to expand the underground mining operation, which currently produces approximately 2,500 tonnes per month. The short term objective is to achieve production in the region of 8,000 tonnes per month through the upgrading of infrastructure and the implementation of an additional mining shift.

Red Rock Resources (LON:RRR) (RRR, 2.08p, ? (2.35%)) announced new sample results from its Migori gold project in Kenya. Results have been received for: hand-grab samples collected from across the entire strike length of the Migori greenstone belt; samples from the December 2009/January 2010 reverse circulation drilling programme; and the samples drilled at the tailings dam. Target commodities were precious and base metals.

Allied Gold Ltd (LON:AGLD) (AGLD, 23.25p, ? (0.0%)) announced that it has awarded an A$64M Engineering Procurement & Construction (EPC) contract as part of A$150M re-development of the 120,000oz pa Gold Ridge mine in the Solomon Islands. The EPC contract with GR Engineering Services involves the refurbishment of the existing Gold Ridge process plant and its expansion from 2Mtpa to a throughput of 2.5Mtpa, with first gold pour expected in the March quarter 2011.