Upland Resources Share Discussion Threads

[stark industries] 06/8/2018 08:35

Need some volume to smash the 4p once and for all.New highs will be upon us this week as we inch up towards realistic levels here.10p - 15p before Wick ?Its all possible here....all to play for

[hulltiger] 06/8/2018 08:35

Good morning all, I trust you had a great weekend and back into a bit of blue this morning.

Divnad, with regards to your post last night, it was not an easy decision, as I had been in Tern since day one, always had problems with the way the BOD treated PIs but believed in their portfolio.I started to get the jitters at the dizzy heights of 50p plus and even more silly mistakes by the BOD. So I started selling and to be honest the private BB I posted on, will probably be pleased to see the back of me, as I had become what I would call a negative bull and Tern PIs don't like a wrong word to be said. If the present circumstances change I would go back,as I still believe in the portfolio.

Enough of Tern I think, I have now chose a company with a first class BOD and great prospects.

[zengas] 06/8/2018 08:34

Spangle - think you missed the point i was making. Sorry if confusing, I wasn't referring to multiple operators. I refer to bringing in a technical partner like Dunravens' intention to remain operator and what Sound did while remaining operator on Tendrara. Dunraven have 100% as i said in last Fridays post 4062. The latest info came from Legendary Investments having 2% of Dunraven as an investor. (Cotl is the named operator but fully owned by Dunraven and of course the same thing).

[trulyscrumptious] 06/8/2018 08:22

Playing catch-up at last.

[stark industries] 06/8/2018 08:19

Filling those boots aye ;-)

[spangle93] 06/8/2018 07:56

Hi Zengas - I'm not following your point?

There are many ways to fund wells, or structure equity holdings, but there can only be one operator of a licence, with its accountabilities. COTL is a 100% owned subsidiary of Dunraven, so effectively for these purposes the same company.

The partner with the largest stake is conventionally the operator, although not always the case. Another possibility is that a partner (typically a state company) is carried through execution, and pays its share through reduced revenue take when the field is on production. Until recently, Schlumberger (SPM) has favoured a model in which it is paid through a profit per barrel - it hasn't wanted to have reserves on its books, but inatead acts as a field management company with exclusivity of its service products.

I agree that it's likely that UPL will need to bring in a partner. The perfect situation of a smaller company with a big block is to advance the knowledge, value and desirability of that block far faster than the money they spend doing it, but any development would require deeper pockets. According to its Wiki page, Nawara was estimated by OMV to be €500 (ca. $570) for their 50% stake of 560 bcf, i.e. Devex was thought to be about $2/bcf recoverable.

[zengas] 05/8/2018 22:24

Re Malcys comment on majority stake.

This permit is a discovery and we already saw what Marathon Oil left behind in a 4,000 boepd gas/condensate well. I expect that UPL could go down the appraisal route in a similar way. Both companies below being operator while bringing in/negotiating to bring in technical partners.

From Jul 2018 on the Tunisian permit held by Dunraven -

"COTL holds and is the operator of the El Mediouni East and Central oil asset ("ELM") in the Mahdia Permit . As announced by Legendary, in December 2017, ELM's previous owner, Circle Oil Plc invested heavily in ELM, and in August 2014 announced a potential large discovery following preliminary results from the EMD 1 well drilled by COTL which gave evidence of a working petroleum system and traces of hydrocarbons. Internal results were estimated by Circle Oil Plc as potentially recoverable prospective resources of approximately 100 million barrels of oil.
Dunraven has already developed an ambitious 18 month work programme for ELM, including a drilling programme. Dunraven is also in negotiations with a major services company to be their technical partner."

From Oct 2015 Sound Energy Morocco -

"Tendrara: Schlumberger Field Management Agreement
Schlumberger will provide integrated technical services, equipment and personnel to Sound Energy, Operator of the Tendrara Licence; Schlumberger will fund a significant proportion of the capital expenditure on the first three Tendrara appraisal wells, and of the development of the licence area thereafter; and
Schlumberger will be granted an upside linked to production performance."

[trulyscrumptious] 05/8/2018 21:50

Malcy's coverage should enlighten a few who might otherwise have been left in the dark. From August 1st:

Upland Resources
I don’t formally cover Upland yet but have spoken to CEO Steve Staley and requested a meeting next time he is in town but I sort of like what I see and need to get to know them a little more.

Today they have announced that they have had their application for a licence in Tunisia accepted in an area where gas was discovered 50 years ago! They feel that this discovery de-risks the play and with spare pipeline capacity running through the block would make exports to local gas markets highly convenient. The company only announce that they have taken ‘a majority stake’ which is confusing and also that any success would lead to State Company ETAP backing in for a ‘minority stake’ but I’m sure that details will be forthcoming. The normal work programme has been agreed so expect a 2D seismic programme which if successful would lead to one or more exploration wells to be drilled.

North Africa is very hot right now as we know from a number of companies who are trying to enter the space and also from a number of companies in the post code who are getting plenty of inbound enquiries as well as competition for new acreage, watch this space…

[divmad] 05/8/2018 21:30

hulltiger,

I bet you are sighing a huge sigh of relief at getting out of TERN, a 10-week wonder stock.

[tyler90] 05/8/2018 12:59

No weekend press coverage so still under the radar for most retail investors despite the appealing broker note. Middle of the holiday period so expect things to pick up end of August/first week of September.

[hulltiger] 04/8/2018 13:37

Good afternoon, I hope you are all enjoying a lovely stress free weekend. For those of you who are interested in such things, an update from Barchart.

[euclid5] 04/8/2018 11:05

I would of thought they now have access to the past oil well reports, to give them much more detailed information on these 4 - 5 wells that where drilled many years ago.

[nlmbidc] 04/8/2018 11:02

Autre is other.

[zengas] 04/8/2018 10:48

Thanks Spangle. Great link.

10 wells on the block and an 11th right on the border with an adjacent block. Exploration hasn't made a dent in the licence nor seismic beyond 1,000 km of lines.

Don't know what to make of the wells - 1 (DK-1) = oil traces/gas shows, 2 (RSB-1 & RSA-2) = Autre which I take means other, 8 (DKB-1, DKA-1, BGU-1, EHF-1, SNJ-1, GGB-1, GGA-1 & EF-1) listed as Petrole ?

S.Staley said there was 5 wells so I wonder are these the ones nearest the pipeline he mentioned ?

He also said the discovery wasn't properly appraised. DK-1 with the oil traces/gas shows might have been a first well then followed by DKA-1 & DKB-1 as follow ups in that labelling sequence and results as petrole, ie discovery but gas instead of oil ?.

[euclid5] 04/8/2018 10:14

Hi Spangle,

Good post, & thanks for the links
_ ________________________________________________________________________________
GEOGRAPHICAL SETTING

The Saouaf block is located in Central-north onshore Tunisia.

ACREAGE

4004KM².

GEOLOGICAL SETTING

The SAOUAF block is crossed by Zaghouan thrust belt fault that separates Tunisian Atlas to the west and the sahel plain to the east. The block is characterized by a variety of structures features including NE – SW (Such as Jebel Serdj/Bargou, Jebel Bou Dabbous and Jebel Jehaf) and N-S trending folds (Such as Jebel Fadhloun and Jebel Garsi). The area acted as a platform to basin transitional zone with deep marine shales to shallow marine carbonates during the Cretaceous and as a platform with carbonate-shale deposit during the Eocene. The area is affected by Pyrenean and Atlasic orogenies.

PETROLEUM SYSTEM

Reservoirs and seals

The Lower Jurassic Oust and the Upper Jurassic Ressas limestones and Dolomites are considered as a primary target in Saouaf block. The intraformational shale or argillaceous layers of the Sidi Khralif formation provide the main seals.
The Aptian Serdj, bioclastic, locally reefal, limestones and dolomites are considered as a secondary target. These reservoirs are oil bearing in the Douleb, -Tamesmida field trend.

The deep marine claystones and marls of Albian Lower Fahdene Formation constitute the main seal. The Campanian to Lower Maastrichtian Abiod chalky and fractured limestones, are considered as potential reservoir in Saouaf block. The Maastrictian to Paleocene El Haria shales will act as seals.

Source Rocks

The Late Cenomanian to Early Turonian Bahloul marine limestones and the Albian Lower Fahdene shales are main mature source rocks in the area.
The middle Jurassic Toarcian shale is considered as potential source rock.

Traps

Faulted anticlines and reef anomalies within the Aptian play constitute the main trap types.

[spangle93] 04/8/2018 07:50

Hello Zengas

The Austrian company OMV reduced its presence in Tunisia recently, but are currently developing a sizeable gas field Nawara (ca. 580 bcf), albeit it's in the south of the country



It says in the link "Government Decree of National Interest signed in June 2015 making Nawara a Project of National Interest" so imagine how much they'd support the development of anything bigger!

The ETAP site is pretty useful for Tunisia assets, as it's partner in many blocks and national administrator. If you visit this page

and click on Carte de Concessions, the Saouaf permit (looks like the tiles I usually end up with at Scrabble) is mid-North, from the shore of the Gulf of Hammamet. The exploration well locations are shown.

Meanwhile this page

gives basic details on hydrocarbon potential of the Saouaf permit. [I can't get the link on this page to open]

[argyle underclap] 03/8/2018 21:31

For anyone reading that interview for the 1st time, the Author incorrectly refers to UPL as an Aim stock.

UPL has a main market standard listing.

Not Aim casino.

[argyle underclap] 03/8/2018 21:05

Zengas re selling on in a success case...

From value the markets 3rd May 2018

SS: “In general, whether or not we hold an asset until production depends on several factors. If we are lucky enough to make a huge discovery, then it is likely that the capital required to develop it would be well beyond our means, even with project financing, so we would probably sell this project on or at least sell a majority stake. With things like Hardstoft, which is onshore, not very big and cheap to develop, we would probably try and stay with it into production.”

[nlmbidc] 03/8/2018 20:38

Not sure there will be any 3d.

The share price will continue to climb now as we get closer to drilling Wick.

[soulsauce] 03/8/2018 19:21

Indeed Zengas interesting. May be shoot a small area of 3d around the find 😉

[zengas] 03/8/2018 19:15

Circle Oil went out of business as they had only $10m cash and $69m of net debt by May 2016.

They were in Egypt, Oman, Morocco and Tunisia and never did anything in Tunisia for around 2-3 years due to cash constraints, debt, dire markets/prices and irregular payments in Egypt, but made what they believed to be a 100 mmboe offshore discovery. SDX Energy bought their Morocco and Egyptian assets. Irish company Dunraven Resources now has the Tunisian permits (some are ex Circle Oil people).

Like Fastnet never getting round to drilling Tendrara which became Sounds company maker at the time - Circle never drilled the small onshore Beni Khaled permit of 55km2. This had the now 27 year old Bir Drassen gas discovery in 1991 by Marathon Oil and tested almost 4,000 boepd gas/small amount of condensate - This is what they said - "At the time this was not of commercial interest".

Looking further into Circle Oils details on this - the small 55 km2 concession was reckoned to have 47-50 bcf of recoverable gas (approx 8 mmboe) and potential for an unappraised oil rim of 6 mmbo in Bir Drassen. It also had the small Beni Khalled oil field of around 2 mmbo with 2 further leads all within the 55 km2. This was in Northern Tunisia.

Duraven who now have it - latest estimates are 3.8 mmbo reserves (600k produced) for the oil field.

This is their cost estimate April 2018 for the Beni Khaled permit -

"An initial investment of US$5 million will cover 50km² of new seismic and the drilling of one well. Licence area contains the undeveloped Bir Drassen discovery well BDR-1, drilled in 1991- tested at a rate of 23.5 million ft3 of gas p/d and 28 bbls/pd of condensate. Internal estimates that most-likely recoverable resources from Bir Drassen of up to 50 billion cubic feet of gas, and potentially six million barrels of oil in a prognosed oil rim". Legendary Investments have taken a 2% stake in Dunraven.

If UPL have a similar gas discovery tucked way and can flow test at anywhere near a similar rate now that gas is much more important and valuable than Marathon passed over 27 years ago - this could be company opening with infrastructure crossing the block. At least 16 mmboe reckoned in 55 km2. With over 70 times greater size in our licence (with an existing gas discovery) the potential for over 100 mmboe should exist given they say "potential for very substantial gas." Bottom line, 50 Bcf like Marathons discovery is not very substantial. All we need is more details on the gas discovery and to learn what has been repackaged into this 4004 km2 licence which made it attractive for investment.

Reading it again - "As indicated by Upland's technical work on the area, the Company believes there is the potential for very substantial quantities of recoverable gas within the permit area. The Company's exploration plans are also partly de-risked by an existing gas discovery in the area made 50 years ago, before the advent of local gas markets."

If Marathon walked away from a 4,000 boepd gas discovery 27 years ago, who left a 50 year old gas discovery behind and how will it compare in terms of numbers ?

[argyle underclap] 03/8/2018 16:58

O/T Absolute freak show over there with posters and mgt to match. Today was the final straw, so i reduced my already greatly reduced holding to a very small free punt. GL all who still hold.

Exciting times for UPL.

It’s a stink free zone.

[doughty] 03/8/2018 16:44

All to play for...have a great weekend peeps :-)

[tialouise] 03/8/2018 16:39

Ht, agree I've sold most my holdings in tern left a little to play out .have a good weekend all the best Tia xx