Oil & Gas Corporate News
Borders & Southern Petroleum (BUY, £1.50) (BOR, 62.5p, ? 0.79%) announced that it has signed a new rig contract with Ocean Rig UDW Inc. for the provision of mobile drilling rig services using the Leiv Eiriksson drilling unit. This replaces the previous contract for Ocean Rig's Eirik Raude drilling unit. The substitution is mutually beneficial for both companies. The vessel is likely to be mobilised to the Falkland Islands in October 2011 following the completion of its operations in Greenland. The arrival of the rig and subsequent spud date for the Company?s first well is likely to be in December of this year.
Cove Energy (LON:COV) (COV, 86p, ? 4.71%) provided an operational update. Highlights: Extensive conventional coring programme of the three gas bearing reservoirs successfully completed at the Windjammer discovery well site; Belford Dolphin drillship now at the Lagosta discovery well site to continue coring programme, after which the rig will drill the Barquentine 2 appraisal well; and a second drillship is scheduled to commence operations in Q4 2011 on the Rovuma offshore area; 1,600 km2 3D seismic survey completed over a potential "oil source kitchen" in the southern licence area. Initial results expected in Q3 2011; and in Kenya COV announced the acceleration of a 3,517 km2 3D seismic acquisition, which is to commence in mid May 2011.
Hardy Oil (LON:HDY) & Gas (HOLD, £2.00) (HDY, 215p, ? 0.0%) announced that following BP?s announcement with respect to the acquisition of a 30 per cent interest in the RIL operated D3, D9 and Assam exploration licences (subject to GOI approval), it has waived its pre-emptive rights to increase its participating interest in all of these blocks, while retaining an option to increase its participating interest in D3 by three per cent from Reliance. If exercised, the consideration for the exercise of the three per cent option in D3 would have been a cash payment by Hardy to Reliance of approximately $150 million, payable in three instalments over a seven month period from the closing of the BP acquisition. The option consideration implies a gross value of approximately $5.0 billion for the D3 exploration licence.
JKX Oil & Gas (JKX, 297.6p, ? 1.29%) issued its interim management statement for the quarter ending 31 March 2011. Highlights: Production 8,910 boepd (Q1 2010: 11,384 boped,…
