Oil & Gas Corporate News
Gulf Keystone (BUY, £2.00) (GKP, 188.25p, ? (1.44%)) confirmed that, contrary to recent press speculation, it not received any approaches regarding a possible offer for the Company.
Comment: Our view remains that as soon as a new government, reflecting the results of the latest elections of March 2010, is installed in Baghdad the political risk attached to the region will disappear. The recent entry of Marathon in Kurdistan with new PSC awards and farm-ins announced on 20 Oct 2010 is a sign that we are close to an end to the political process. For the past 3 years or so, the political standoff meant that Kurdistan has been a fertile ground for independents, as majors were precluded by Baghdad to enter, and we believe that it is getting close to becoming the hunting grounds of majors as they scramble to buy a piece of the action. Gulf Keystones strategy of proving up as much of the resources in the shortest amount of time is the right one to maximise the value of a potential offer and the acceleration of the exploration activities following the recent placing is spot on. The missing but implied word in the RNS above is yet.
Ascent Resources (LON:AST) (BUY, £0.20) (AST, 4.75p, ? (8.57%)) has completed the sale of its 20.167% interest in the western part of the Nyírség Szatmár permits in Hungary, known as the Panhandle, which contains the Görbeháza-1 ('GH-1') gas discovery. Ascent will initially receive a cash consideration of US$300,000 and additionally pro rata payments, net to Ascent, of US$300,000 per Bcf will be made once the cumulative production from GH-1 exceeds 1 Bcf. The other minority partners in the licence, DualEx Nyírség Inc. and Swede Resources AB have also divested their interests on similar terms. The proceeds will be used for the development of Ascent's European portfolio, which includes assets in Italy, Slovenia and Hungary and in particular the Petisovci-Lovaszi project area on which the Company recently announced an independently verified P50 estimate of gas-in-place of 412 Bcf. The sale of the interest was to existing project partners Hungarian Horizon Energy ('HHE') and JKX plc ('JKX') who operate the nearby Hajdúnánás gas field, where the Görbeháza gas is processed and sold to the main pipeline. The Görbeháza-1 well was drilled in August 2009 and tested gas from…
