Cove Energy Share Discussion Threads

[sueyou] 15/3/2012 11:31

eelanguilla, WOTEVA!!

Mine is a heads-up to other O&G investors, NOT SPAM, clearly you are not an O&G investor your just a big mouth!!

[eelanguilla] 14/3/2012 19:09

Sue you spam AEX board - dont spam this or I will filter

[sueyou] 14/3/2012 18:41

FYI - Oilbarrel.com - could be the next Cove getting built up ....

March 14, 2012

Aminex Goes On The Acquisition Trail To Create Africa-Focused E&P

When Stuard Detmer took over as chief executive of London-listed Aminex late last year, he embarked on a tour of the company's assets (although he left out North Korea, for obvious reasons). At the end of this review, it was very clear that the company's future lies in Africa, where, in Tanzania, it already has a toehold in what Detmer calls a "white hot area". The ex-Sibir Energy boss is keen to leverage the experience gained in Tanzania, which was stone cold when Aminex made its first investments over a decade ago, and secure further assets in this resource-rich continent.

"We see a lot of opportunity down there," Detmer tells oilbarrel.com. "The type of opportunities that could quadruple, quintuple, or even make this company ten times more valuable than it is today."

Opportunities with that kind of growth potential don't exist elsewhere in the portfolio. North Korea remains a no-go area because of the political situation while its US asset base is mature and requires constant investment to maintain production. "The US assets are never going to really move the needle for us but for someone already operating in the US they do make sense as part of a larger portfolio," says Detmer, explaining the decision to now divest the properties. This process has already started with Aminex recently selling its stripper wells on the Somerset oilfield in Texas for US$700,000.

The new look Aminex plans to become an Africa-focused E&P, growing its portfolio through acquisition and then de-risking it through farm-outs and increased use of seismic ahead of drilling. Detmer reckons there's a 12-24 month window to achieve critical mass through acquisition in Africa, as the smaller companies that have pioneered the way across the Continent struggle with capital constraints and are ripe for consolidation. "We would like to be a consolidator," says Detmer, pointing out that the company's main London Stock Exchange listing is a real asset when competing for acquisition opportunities.

In addition to cash raised from the sale of the US assets, Aminex has a useful weapon in its armoury when it comes to making acquisitions. In late 2011, the London company raised US$3.1 million from new Asian investors at a 45 per cent premium to the market. The new investors now have a 4.76 per cent shareholding and may increase their stake to fund an African growth strategy.

Detmer sees these kinds of long term Strategic relationships with Strategic investors as key to growing the company. "We have a number of options. Our new Asian investors may take a larger Strategic stake or we might co-invest in new projects or bring in other co-investors," says Detmer, who points out that Aminex is an attractive vehicle for resource-focused investors. "We are the only Africa focused E&P of our size on the main list of the LSE. That's an advantage we have and as a relatively small company you have to leverage every opportunity you have."

As witnessed in the bidding war for AIM-quoted Cove Energy, which has an 8.5 per cent stake in a potential 30 TCF gas resource offshore Mozambique, Asian companies are scrambling over themselves to get a slice of the action in Africa, particularly East Africa, where giant deepwater gas finds are well-placed to feed booming Asia-Pacific LNG markets.

Aminex's Tanzanian assets are on a much smaller scale – for now. It has a modest gas discovery in the Nyuni licence, which it hopes to bring onstream this year. And it is currently drilling a high impact well, Ntorya-1 in the giant Ruvuma PSA. The well has already made a small gas discovery – three metres of net pay - and is being deepened to 3,000 metres to investigate a "prominent seismic event". Aminex and Solo Oil are deepening the hole without fellow joint venture partner Tullow Oil, which has no back in rights should this yield success. The big hope here is that the deeper level will find the oil that has so far proved elusive on this East Coast of Africa: traces have been found before, including the oil shows logged in Aminex's Likonde-1 well of 2010, drilled just 14 km to the north of Ntorya-1.

Regardless of the result, the company is already excited by the well which has proven for the first time that the gas fairway extends from the deep offshore to the onshore part of the basin. Following testing, the company plans a comprehensive seismic shoot to put some definition round the structure. This is central to Detmer's vision for the company, to derisk its portfolio by better use of seismic and help bring in farm-in partners to reduce its equity position in projects to the 25-30 per cent level. In the past, he admits, the company has "drilled stuff that was less than optimal" because time pressures had constrained seismic work.

To this end, the company now plans a large 800 km seismic programme over the Nyuni licence, where recent drilling has been disappointing. Some of this will be an ocean bottom cable survey over the shallow transition zone, where exploration work has focused to date for cost reasons, but 500 km of the seismic will cover the deep offshore, which marks a change of pace for Aminex. "Thirty per cent of the Nyuni PSA is in the deepwater right next door to where Ophir and RAKgas are working," says Detmer. This could open up an exciting new project for Aminex given the buzz surrounding the East African deep offshore in the wake of recent big gas finds.

This could shape up to be a real transition year for Aminex as it sheds past baggage and seeks to make new acquisitions that will shape its future. In the near term, all eyes will be on Tanzania and the much-anticipated testing of the deepened Ntorya-1 well.

[colonel hathi] 14/3/2012 12:26

Cove Energy reveals further increase to Mozambique gas resources

[thecynical1] 14/3/2012 07:57

interesting......increase of 2tcf......8.5% of that......Craven is playing a blinder in my opinion.....luck may be on their side with the timing but sometimes you need a bit of luck! ; )

[rus4] 14/3/2012 07:19

Should Cove delay the Sale process as there seems to be more good news every month ?

[mirabeau] 14/3/2012 06:17

Videocon is also learnt to have received a surprise $3 billion unsolicited offer for its 10% prized stake in the gigantic gas filed in Mozambique in which its junior partner Cove Energy, which has put itself on the block, holds 8.5%. Global oil major Royal Dutch Shell and Thai state-owned oil firm PTTEP have bid for Cove Energy, while India's ONGC and GAIL have expressed desire in participating in the bids.

Without confirming or denying the offer, Dhoot said, "If our 10% stake is getting valued at $3 billion now, it will fetch me over $7 billion in just three years time when it starts producing so we are not exiting at this point of time."

[colonel hathi] 13/3/2012 20:04

Rovuma success sparks fresh Cove takeover hopes

[colonel hathi] 12/3/2012 11:12

GAIL Chairman: Still Evaluating Bid For Cove Energy

[plunger2] 12/3/2012 10:44

Worthy of consideration:




By: Keith Campbell
9th March 2012

In its draft new mining law, Mozambique is proposing that business deals involving mining rights and licences for the country's resources will have to be executed within the country's borders.

"The total or partial transfer of social [company] shares or mineral rights in investment projects in the mining sector should be done in the national territory, and the announcement of the public offering made, equally, in the biggest circulation communications media in the national territory," states a copy of the draft legislation, quoted last week by the O País newspaper. The draft is expected to be submitted to the Mozambique government during the first half of this year.
Mozambican Mineral Resources Minister Esperança Bias told journalists that making the public announcement of the transfer of mineral rights and licences a requirement would benefit the public purse and allow Mozambicans who had access to the necessary financing to participate in such transactions. This proposal is intended to end the current situation in which the rights to projects in Mozambique can be bought and sold outside the country by international companies, without the knowledge of the authorities in Maputo and without any benefits for the Mozambican treasury.

[cumnor] 12/3/2012 08:03

News from China re sucking in oil imports will ultimately lead them to grabbing every minor African oiler they can and bodes well.

[thecynical1] 12/3/2012 07:53

nice time for a flow test announcement...

[fraserdean] 10/3/2012 11:23

Nope

One suggestion is that Cove get prices for Kenya vs Mozam so the govt can then CGT Mozam bit, not that they sell assets individually. But there are many other suggestions, inluding no tax.

[robs12] 09/3/2012 23:45

Moz govt only approve the sale if it is to the Moz National Oil Petroleum Co Ltd, who in turn sell it on to the highest bidder with appropriate margin - Possible?

[oldvic] 09/3/2012 22:37

Rumours are coming out of Mozambique, that the Government will force COVE Energy to sell their assets individually, so that they can impose Capital Gains tax on the Mozambique assets!



YEAH
RIGHT !

[southern lad2] 09/3/2012 17:19

Rumours are coming out of Mozambique, that the Government will force COVE Energy to sell their assets individually, so that they can impose Capital Gains tax on the Mozambique assets!

[peter anthony] 09/3/2012 12:39

Good to see itsonly back. Oldtown probably not far behind. Can always depend on a good news story

[bountyhunter] 09/3/2012 11:13

Date : 24/11/2011 ! and you missed the response from Heritage...

[verymaryhinge] 09/3/2012 10:05

OK - I have sold this morning and wish you all luck. My average was sub 66p, and I as I'm looking a dead money for the forseeable future, I can (hopefully) make it more productive elsewhere..