By Amy McLellan And they’re off! Rockhopper Exploration has spudded the first well in the six well campaign that will keep those who have long held that the Falkland Islands could be the next North Sea gripped for the next seven or eight months. There have been sporadic bursts of drilling in these waters since…
By Our Man in Oz Minews. Good morning Australia. Your mining market seems to have taken a bit of a battering last week. Oz. It looks like that, but most of the serious damage was confined to a handful of stocks with sharp falls by BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals dragging the ASX…
By Eithne Treanor There’s a sense of stability on the oil market in recent weeks, but geopolitics and a declining rig count still worry investors and analysts. In early trading on Friday, Brent crude was priced above US$60 with WTI now above US$50 a barrel. The oil price has remained in this fixed band for…
By Amy McLellan Shares in Northern Petroleum surged more than 10 per cent in Thursday morning trading after the AIM-quoted E&P announced it had farmed out one of its Italian permits to Shell. This is a coup for the AIM small cap – although long time holders will know it’s not the first time Northern…
By Alastair Ford According to the headline for the announcement of pre-feasibility results, South Boulder’s Colluli potash project in Eritrea is “globally significant”. To understand why, a closer look at the state of the global potash market is required. “Colluli”, says South Boulder’s managing director Paul Donaldson, “is the shallowest known potash deposit globally.” Not…
By Martin Clark It looks to be the end of the line for Canada’s Mart Resources, a name that has been playing in and around the West African oil and gas scene for many years.The company announced this week that it is in talks to be acquired by an indigenous Nigerian firm, Midwestern Oil and…
By Amy McLellan Energean Oil & Gas is best known for its interests in Greece, where it is embarking on a major investment programme to hike output from its Prinos oilfield. But the Athens-based company is also keen to prove its exploration credentials. In addition to scooping up exploration acreage in Greece, it also has…
By Our Canadian Correspondent The 83rd annual Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (“PDAC”) Conference got underway in Toronto, Canada on March 1st, with mining financiers looking to feast on a smorgasbord of opportunities. Unfortunately, as the world’s largest mining conference draws to a close on Wednesday, the money men appeared to have had a…
By Alastair Ford As ever with a company managed by Andrew Bell – the mercurial entrepreneur who cut deals all the way through the last boom and still has a penchant for cutting deals now – there is plenty going on at Red Rock Resources. Attention will shortly shift to an extensive gold exploration programme…
By Martin Clark In a move that broadens its African exposure widely, Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited (COPL) has unveiled details of its pairing with indigenous firm, Shoreline Energy. COPL, which is listed in London and in Toronto, is keen to diversify and balance its portfolio with new upstream exploration projects and development opportunities.The company already…
