By Amy McLellan Frontier wildcatting is always high risk – and it doesn’t come much more frontier than the Badada-1 well in the little-known Anza Basin of Kenya. Unfortunately for backers of TSX-Venture-listed Taipan Resources, the risk didn’t pay off this time, with the wildcat in Block 2B hitting dust, sending shares in the company…
By Amy McLellan It’s a real vote of confidence to raise money in current market conditions so the team at Oslo-listed African Petroleum are rightly feeling rather pleased with the company’s recent fundraise. The Australia-based explorer, which was started five years ago to target the emerging West Africa Transform Margin made famous by Tullow Oil…
By Our Man in Oz Some people might think it insulting to describe the Kambalda nickel assets of Mincor Resources as “The Magic Pudding” of mining, but that’s because they don’t know the Australian children’s story about a magic pudding which always re-forms after every spoonful and can be eaten again and again. Kambalda orebodies…
Looking for the Earth’s palm in Namibia By Anthony Robinson If Stephen Larkin, CEO of a small but highly innovative oil and gas exploration company called African New Energies (ANE), is correct, Southern Africa could well have world scale oil and gas deposits in South Eastern Namibia, bordering Botswana and the Kalahari Desert. A study…
By Our Man in Oz Minews. Good morning Australia, last week’s fall in most metal prices would not have been good news for your market. Oz. The lower prices did put a bit of a dampener on things, as did a surprise rise in the value of the Australian dollar. However, even with both of…
By Eithne Treanor Abundant oil supply on the global market kept the oil price steady this week though a rise in US inventories was bearish. Stocks have been building for the past six-week in a climate of continuous production with little change in demand. In early trading on Friday, Brent crude was priced around US$60…
By Alastair Ford There’s a new mining minister in Tanzania, after the previous incumbent left amid allegations of impropriety in a multi-million dollar energy scandal that’s already claimed the scalps of several other government ministers. But in spite of that, Grant Pierce, Executive Director, Projects at Kibaran Resources, doesn’t expect any major disruption at the…
By Amy McLellan Excitement is mounting for backers of AIM-listed onshore drillers Europa Oil & Gas, Egdon Resources and Union Jack Oil as the second of the three intervals being tested at the Wressle-1 discovery in the East Midlands has come good. The Wingfield Flags reservoir has flowed free oil at rates of up to…
By Amy McLellan There were high hopes for Kea Petroleum when it was founded by the ex-Rift Oil management team. They had made money in Papua New Guinea, selling up to Talisman Energy in 2009 in a £114.8m cash deal that was a 30 per cent premium on the stock price, and hoped to replicate…
By Stewart Dalby Speaking at an Oilbarrel conference last November Joel “Monty” Pemberton, CEO of AIM-listed Trinity Exploration & Production said that, the tiny nation of Trinidad, with massive offshore gas reserves, was propelled to become the methanol power house of the world, the sixth largest LNG exporter in the world and a partner to…
