The international oil and gas company Soco International (LON:SIA) announced today its preliminary results for 2009 and detailed their exploration campaigns in Africa and Vietnam for 2010. Financial highlights included an after tax profit figure of $51.1 million, reportedly due to the earnings from the company's South East Asian producing assets. The current exploration , appraisal and development programme is funded with year end cash, with a liquid investment balance of $307.6 million and an additional GBP 99.2 million from a share placing in Q1 2010.
During 2009, the Group was gathering momentum during 2009 towards the launch of an exploration campaign in both their core areas, Africa and South East Asia. In Congo (Brazzaville), the Company drilled its first two wells in its Africa region in the second half of 2009, both in the Company's Marine XI licence, offshore Congo (Brazzaville). The Liyeke Marine 1, a low cost wildcat well, targeted the Sendji Formation but was found to be water saturated and was subsequently plugged and abandoned. The second Marine XI well, the Viodo Marine 4, was a vertical well appraising the 1986, oil rich, although structurally complex, discovery. Two drill stem tests were completed resulting in a combined maximum flow rate of approximately 2,600 BOPD and 7.0 million standard cubic feet of gas per day. The results of the well and associated reprocessed 3D seismic are currently being incorporated into a model to assess the commerciality of the accumulation. In Kinshasa, the company continued interpretation of the 360 kilometre 2D seismic on the Nganzi Block that was acquired in 2008, identifying several major structures. In anticipation of drilling two or three exploration wells in 2010, the Group began construction of roads, bridges and a base camp to facilitate drilling in previously inaccessible areas. In Angola, due to recent security incidents in Cabinda North the planned 2009 2D and 3D seismic campaign was suspended by the operator of the Block. The operator currently expects this to resume in the first half of 2010.
Growth in 2010 will also come from the appraisal programme in Vietnam where the company will begin their largest ever development programme in the Te Giac Trang (TGT) field and drill a promising follow-up well to the 2008 Te Giac Den (TGD) discovery well. With regards…
