In January Serica announced it had farmed out Conan and Oates .
Thew drilling schedule now looks like:
- April-May Conan Prospect - UK East Irish Sea
- June/July Oates Prospect - UK Central North Sea
- Q3 Dambus Prospect Offshore Indonesia - Kutai PSC
- Q3 Marindan Prospect Offshore Indonesia - Kutai PSC
- Q4 1 onshore Indonesia well - Kutai
Summary note out today from First Energy highlighting the forthcoming drilling schedule:
The main driver for Serica Energy in 2010 will be the results from the Company’s exploration program. In 2010, a five-well exploration program will be targeting an estimated potential 160.0 MMBoe net to Serica (93.0 MMBoe offshore UK and 67 MMBoe from Indonesia).
Exploration success leading to commerciality on any of these prospects would significantly change the outlook for this junior producer. These targets have a great deal of risk associated with them, as do all offshore drilling prospects. None the less, Serica has done an effective job to de-risk these prospects through very favorable farm-out agreements.
Followed one day later by a bullish note from RBC (Al Stanton) who are Serica's broker - sorry no link:
An exciting combination of exploration drilling and solid finances: We see Serica as an attractive small-cap exploration story through 2010 with material stakes in five exploration wells within proven basins. We reiterate our Outperform recommendation and C$2.00 Target Price, which could increase significantly on exploration success.
... Serica is our favourite UK exploration play with the high-impact Conan and Oates exploration wells scheduled for April/May and June/July respectively. Fully, unrisked, the two wells offer combined upside of ~120% to our current C$2.02/share (114p) NAV.
... $40m net cash position: After completing the KrisEnergy deal and paying down debt in January, Serica has net cash of around $40m. Coupled with 2010E operating cash flows of $17m and exploration carries, this is more than sufficient to fund planned 2010 activity.
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