Duke’s Puntland Oil update, Nasdaq listing + other

[General Duke]

Africa Oil to Apply for Listing on Nasdaq First North, Stockholm

 

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, May 28, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Africa Oil Corp. /quotes/comstock/11v!aoi (CA:AOI 1.27, +0.03, +2.42%) ("Africa Oil" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that it intends to apply for a secondary listing of its Common Shares on the First North list of the Nasdaq OMX Stock Exchange.

 

E. Ohman J:or Fondkommission AB has been engaged as the Company's financial advisor in conjunction with the secondary listing. Trading on First North is subject to a number of conditions including affiliation of the Company's shares to Euroclear Sweden, sufficient shareholder distribution in Sweden and distribution of a company description. The aim is to have the listing completed by the end of September.

 

Keith Hill, President and CEO, commented, "We are very excited about the opportunity to trade on First North. Over the past year, we have seen tremendous growth in our shareholder base in Sweden and we look forward to welcoming many new shareholders when trading commences. A listing on First North will complement our existing listing on the TSX Venture Exchange in Canada and add liquidity and depth of distribution."

 

In addition, the Company announces that is has published it first quarter report for the period ended March 31, 2010. The report is available on www.sedar.com and the Company's website www.africaoilcorp.com.

 

Africa Oil Corp. is a Canadian oil and gas company with assets in Kenya, Puntland (Somalia) and Ethiopia. Africa Oil's East African holdings are in what is considered a truly world-class exploration play fairway. The Company's total gross land package in this prolific region is in excess of 225,000 square kilometers - an area roughly the size of Great Britain. The East African Rift Basin system is one of the last of the great rift basins to be explored. New discoveries have been announced on all sides of Africa Oil's virtually unexplored land position including the major Heritage/Tullow Albert Graben oil discovery in neighbouring Uganda. Similar to the Albert Graben play model, Africa Oil's concessions have older wells, a legacy database, and host numerous oil seeps indicating a proven petroleum system. Good quality existing seismic show robust leads and prospects throughout Africa Oil's project areas. The Company is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "AOI".

[General Duke]

source

[General Duke]

Contacts:

Africa Oil Corp.

Sophia Shane

Corporate Development

(604) 689-7842

(604) 689-4250 (FAX)

www.africaoilcorp.com

 

[General Duke]

 

The Nugaal and Dharoor Blocks are located in the Nugaal and Darin Mesozoic basins in northern Somalia. The Mesozoic basins are interpreted to be extensions of the Marib-Shawba and Sayun-Masila Basins of Yemen. Prior to the opening of the Gulf of Aden in the Oligocene-Miocene, these areas were contiguous and similar sedimentary sequences and structural styles are likely.

[General Duke]

Overview

 

The company holds two blocks in Puntland, Somalia: the Nugaal Block and the Dharoor Block.

 

 

source

[General Duke]

Range Resources Limited (“Range” or “the Company”) is both an ASX-listed (ASX: RRS RRSOA) and AIM-listed (AIM: RRL) exploration Company,

with its principal activity directed towards finding and delineating natural resources in the oil, gas and mineral sectors in Puntland, Somalia; the Republic of Georgia and onshore Texas, USA.

 

Range’s main focus is in Puntland, Somalia where it holds a 20% working interest in two Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs) for the Nogal and Dharoor Blocks. These conscessions encompass two highly prospective hydrocarbon basins covering an area of 81,000sq.km or more than 20 million acres.

 

In July 2009, The Company entered into a Heads of Agreement with the private UK company Strait Oil and Gas Ltd. to acquire a 50% interest in two oil and gas blocks in the Republic of Georgia.

 

In September 2009, Range acquired a 25% interest in the North Chapman Ranch project in Nueces County, Texas. The operator, US-based private oil and gas company Crest Resources Inc., has already commenced drilling the first well. The project area encompasses approximately 1,280 acres in one of the most prolific oil and gas producing trends in the State of Texas.

 

With Range’s planned onshore drilling program in Puntland, and its progress towards developing a joint exploration strategy with the Puntland Government for offshore Puntland, the Georgia and Texas farm-in are considered by Range to be a significant step towards establishing the company as a diversified international explorer with a growing oil and gas acreage position and significant upside potential.

 

[General Duke]

Old Park Lane Capital has initiated coverage of Range Resources (ASX: RRS, AIM: RRL), praising its “highly attractive spread of exposure” to frontier exploration and stating that the value of just one of its wells alone underpinned the current market value of the company, which could develop into a major player in the E&P (exploration and production) sector.

 

The broker said that the exposure to frontier exploration was balanced out by low risk assets that were already in production, while the “transformation” of the company could be delivered by its projects in the Puntland region of Somalia, where Range holds a 20% working interest in two PSAs (production sharing agreements) in the Dharoor and Nugaal onshore basins. The interest in Dharoor is contributing, while the interest in Nugaal is carried for about US$16 million.

Old Park Lane expects the first exploration well in Puntland to be spudded before the end of the current year and the second well in early 2011, providing Range Resources with exposure to multi-billion barrel prospects.

 

The company’s 25% interest Smith #1 discovery well on the North Chapman Ranch Project in Texas has commenced production at what the broker said were “impressive rates,” stating that just this well underpinned Range Resources’ current market value with additional upside offered by the success of the currently drilled Russell Bevly #1 appraisal well at North Chapman, which has recently reached a depth of 6,425 feet. Russel Bevly is located just 570 metres north-northwest of the Smith #1 well.

Following on from the recently released Independent Reserves and Valuations Report, the company anticipates that the well will provide valuable information regarding the size and geometry of the reservoir and move additional reserves into the Proved Producing category.

 

Petroleum engineers Lonquist & Co LLC (Lonquist) have estimated the total gross commercially recoverable reserves (1P, 2P and 3P) of the North Chapman Ranch Field at 215 Bcf (billion cubic feet) of natural gas with 45 Bcf attributable to Range, 15.9 mmbbl (million barrels) of oil with 3.3 mmbbls attributable to Range and 15.9 mmbbl of natural gas liquids with 3.2 mmbbls attributable to Range, which holds a 20% interest in all subsequent wells to Smith #1.

The report has made an independent PW10 DCF valuation of Range’s net interest of US$226 million.

Should the company achieve positive results in Puntland, Old Park said it could transform into a major player in the sector.

 

Range Resources also has operations in the Republic of Georgia, expecting to “firm up several attractive drill targets” by Q3 and look for farm-in partners to fund future drilling. Range’s activities in Georgia included the completion of the heads of agreement with Strait Oil & Gas to complete Phase II of the PSA and subsequent approval form the Georgian government for the Geophysical Institute of Israel to commence the 2D seismic operation on both block VI1 and block VIb.

The seismic operation that started in November has proceeded well with over 150 km (kilometres) of seismic acquisition having been completed despite recent severe weather conditions with the completion of this operation expected to occur in the end of February to early March 2010.

 

Old Park concluded that in the best case resource estimate and “heavily discounted” risk parameters Rage’s interest in Puntland could be valued at 9.5 pence per share and the recoverable reserves in Texas at 3.3 pence per share.

[Gordon Gekko]

Finally. I've been waiting for this.