Trades and observations from a British contrarian stock investor

This blog is not intended to give financial advice. Before investing, do your own research and consult your financial adviser if appropriate. The accuracy of any information included is not guaranteed and may be subject to conjecture or interpretation by Contrarian Investor. Therefore visitors should validate all facts using alternative sources where possible.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Rockhopper soars on Falkland Island oil discovery

North Falklands basin oil explorer Rockhopper Exploration (RKH) is currently up 143% to 91p on news that oil has been discovered at the Sea lion prospect. Great news for the Contrarian Investor portfolio given the average purchase price of 42p.  I have taken profits on a large slug of the holding and await further news from the testing programme. It was a case of "nerves of steel" yesterday as Rockhopper's price dropped to around 36p on the general market fall and presumably market makers filling their boots at these low levels in anticipation of an announcement. News clearly leaked this morning before the official RNS as the price had already climbed over 10% by mid morning.

The RNS released at noon today said "Rockhopper Exploration, the North Falkland Basin oil and gas exploration company, is pleased to announce that well 14/10-2on the Sea Lion prospect has reached a depth of 2,744 metres. Initial data collected indicate that this well is an oil discovery, which would be the first in the North Falkland Basin. The Company has run a suite of wireline logs and logging data collected thus far indicate that the well has encountered a 150 metre gross interval of sand and shales. The data show that the well has 53 metres of net pay distributed in multiple pay zones, the thickest of which has a net pay of 25 metres. These pay zones have an average porosity of 19%. Rockhopper now intends to collect additional logging information prior to making a decision whether to plug and abandon the well, or to suspend the well for future testing. The Company is also considering whether to drill an appraisal well on Sea Lion later during the current drilling campaign. Further information will be distributed in due course. It remains the intention of the Company to drill the Ernest prospect in the fourth slot of the overall Falklands Drilling programme.Samuel Moody, Managing Director, commented: "We are extremely excited by the results of this well. While we are presently acquiring additional data, current indications are that we have made the first oil discovery in the North Falkland Basin. We will now focus on analysing inmore detail the data gathered from the well, in addition to continuing preparations for thedrilling of our Ernest prospectlater in the year."

No comments:

Post a Comment