(AFR) Afren

Expanding China-Africa Oil Ties
Updated February 8, 2012
http://on.cfr.org/x9LdXO

Citywire
Diary of a Top Stocker: 5 quality blue chips I've got my
by Gavin Lumsden on Feb 08, 2012 at 11:49
http://bit.ly/xl8VYQ

British Afren says Italian Eni starts drilling oil at Keta block offshore Ghana
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 9:09 AM
http://bit.ly/w2xdyv

On a cheerier Note

Any snippets out there on how Hunt are doing in Kurdistan we should be getting closer every day???

The test results on the Shaikan 4 well by GKP are getting juicer and juicer. They claim they have given up measuring the "good" stuff and just measuring the "poor" zones so as not to over power their test-production facilities.

Regards All

Hi Guys

This rig has got a history; if not directly involved, the associations hopefully can be de-jinxed by a bit of West African voodoo!!!

Maybe we could do a roaring trade in rabbits feet!!

If you like your news a bit on the "doomed" side have a look at "Harolds" posts on GKP.

Best of Luck All

Regards JM

Agreed Barney71255. This was the reason why the spud has only just occurred and didn't happen several months ago as originally inferred when ENI farmed in

Okoro is producing from mutliple wells to get to the current 15k-16k bopd. I think per well, they would be looking at somewhere between 2k-3k bopd, so I would be very happy to hear the same from Okoro East.

Remember that flow rates are only part of the story, no estimate yet for recoverable oil thought the last few presentations have now suggested that the mean will be on the lower end of expectations and therefore the P10 figures could well be closer to the actual oil volumes, which would be awesome. I'm pretty sure that would put Okoro East at a greater size than Okoro itself.

Frazbod,

You won't get any good guidance from the last well because it was plugged and abandoned at a shallower depth than the TD on the current well. I'm sure on the last webcast they suggested around 70 days so I think its more likely to be mid April before we hear anything.

Why do you think Afren have not been super quick to release details in the past?

Note the date of the article says July 6 2011

The world’s most storied deepwater oil rig, the Transocean Marianas, has developed a critical list after an anchor punctured her poontoon and is in risk of sinking on location (UPDATE: She is now stable but risk of sinking remains). 108 people have been evacuated from the rig and 13 remain aboard to perform damage control duties. The Marianas, a Transocean-owned semi-submersible drilling rig is on contract with ENI S.p.A in Ghana, West Africa.

The rig began to take on water and list during anchor recovery operations and it’s believed there is damage to the rig’s #5/#6 anchor chain lockers, however the rig’s crew has since been able to stabilize the situation and a Transocean employee has approximated the list to be less than one degree – a fact that suggests she is stable and no water has entered the column closest to the damage. The rig’s ballast pumps are keeping up with the inflow of water and there was no report of any environmental impact.

But despite being stable, the rig is not yet in the clear. Due to the increase in water pressure at depth, punctures in the pontoons of semi-submersible oil rigs, like the Marianas, are always considered critical. The increased pressure at depth translates to a higher rate of water ingress than would be measured on a traditional ship with equivalent damage. The higher pressure at depth also means increased pressure at the point of damage thus increasing the likelihood of the damage spreading into adjacent compartments. It has not reported if it was at the rig’s higher transit draft in preparation for move – the ususal next step after anchor recovery – which would help minimize the pressure exerted on the damaged pontoon.

Transocean spokesman Guy Cantwell told Reuters ”The rig is stable at this time. There are no injuries,” and has officially downplayed the risk of sinking but sources closer to the damage tell us the company has placed top priority on the incident and has not ruled out sinking as a possibility if weather deteriorates, the damage spreads or a mechanical failure is experienced.

gCaptain has also received word that Transocean has made the proper notifications with regulatory authorities, investors and the media. In addition gCaptain has been told the company has placed stationed tugs in the area, has developed a plan to evacuate the 13 remaining personnel if damage worsens and a team of divers from a nearby rig is en-route to assess the damage.

gCaptain contributer and weather expert Fred Pickhardt of Ocean Weather Services, reports with the following forecast for the region:

Currently satellite images show widespread tropical shower activity across West Africa but mostly concentrated overland, however, some shower activity extends southward over the coastal waters. Surface winds over the area are southerly to southwesterly mostly forces 2-4 with a mostly southerly swell of 5-7 ft at 8-10 seconds.

Oddly enough, the Marianas was the same rig that initially “spudded” the ill-fated Macondo well that led to last year’s tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico. This rig was initially named “Tharos” and designed as a floating “fire truck” of sorts for the North Sea, however it was later converted to a drilling rig and renamed after it’s design proved highly ineffective during the Piper Alpha disaster that occurred 23 years ago on this date.

http://gcaptain.com/transocean-danger-sinking-report/?27595

RS6

I've reported Spikey (BOT) in the past, but my compaint was not even acknowledged by iii. Hence my suspicion that they are funding the operation.

Ghana to Boost Oil Output Fivefold in Five Years on New Wells
February 07, 2012, 12:21 PM EST
http://buswk.co/xkufGk

looking for rns this week or next monday for flow rates of recent find.

as mrposhman has most credibly pointed out that the net oil pay of 549ft is twice the size of the last okoro oil find and thats flowing roughly 10k bopd.

if they announce flow rates in excess of 10k or even 15k bopd then expect us to test £1.40 on the open.

2 wells drilling continuously and in my book these 2 are probably the most effective for the sp, kurdistan and keta.

good to see sp holding current levels, looking for excellent rns any day.

come on afren.

according to google and afrens website

The Cuda 1x well was spudded in 16th November 2008 http://www.subseazone.com/zones/fps_brief.aspx?brief_id=16038

And the well was subsequently plugged and abandoned on 29-12-08
afren press release december 2008
http://www.afren.com/news_and_media/press_releases/12/2008/

So if they spudded at the new well start of this month by the end of march we should hear something, although Afren have not been super quick at releasing details in the past

Also found this which may all be lies but is sort of interesting
http://petex.pesgb.org.uk/cgi-bin/somsid.cgi?page=html/abstracts/abstractid42

He's a robot and he's all over this site on every forum.

Here and now, any idea as to the time scale bearing in mind the difficulty in spudding?

RS6

Afren and ENI Spud Keta Block Well
February 7, 2012
http://bit.ly/Ag36e4

New price target £1.80 from First Energy.
http://www.firstenergy.com/research/documents/Facts-C-WRL_NO-2012-02-01.pdf

We revise our price objective of £1.80 per share (NOK16.00) from £1.40 per share (NOK12.10) and maintain our Outperform recommendation for the stock.

- Investors coming into the story benefit from an opportunity to access an East African pure play with a discovered resource base and where the exploration upside is not priced into current trading levels.

- Investors get access to a de-risked acreage with four wells drilled to date, all of which encountered hydrocarbons with one well currently producing and benefitting from a route to monetization. Given the greater control over the assets, upcoming drilling catalysts and investor desire to play East Africa we consider that the Company could be a beneficiary, post a potential sale of Cove Energy, to those investors seeking to maintain their exposure to one of East Africa's most contested regions, and securing a low cost entry to play East Africa.

„- Trading at a price/risked NAV of 29% and a 60% discount to our core NAV, Wentworth remains the cheapest stock to play the region within our East African universe.

very tough drill this one. it is worth looking back 3 years ago (already!) to the difficulties they faced then. at the time i was very excited as keta looked huge. well encountered very high pressures and had to be abandoned. i think this is why they farmed out to ENI......perhaps they needed the additional expertise and a good idea to de-risk both financially and operationally. still a huge prospect and worth many tens of pence on the sp if it comes in, but no where near as important as three years ago, considering their current production numbers and the vast amounts of assets they have acquired over the past three years.

Arab oil wealth up 29bn barrels in 2011
Most of increase was in Iraq as no new major discoveries were made
By Nadim Kawach
Tuesday, February 07, 2012
http://bit.ly/wKbvvW

Afren starts drilling off the Ghana coast in the hope of finding more oil
Tuesday 7th February 2012, 1:28am
http://bit.ly/AgFWr6

iii used to have a 'report this user' function, but i can't seem to find it anymore.

The fact SpikeyDT is the 12th most favourited member on iii is ridiculous, don't people know how to find RNS's and Google news for themselves?!

Does make me wonder if iii are responsible for SpikeyDT, either way he is a pest and some of those shortened links are dodgy.

Yep. Forum has been hijacked, now a waste of space. Goodbye

That is because Spikey is an 'it'. This is a sophisticated computer program that is monitored by a human back-up team. I believe the technical name is a 'Bot'. If you respond to the messages, you will sometimes receive a response from one of the human monitoring team. Not sure who is funding this, but I suspect it is iii.

Spikey has made 6390 postings in the last 30 days!! That over 200/day.

Exclusive:Asia buys record Africa oil volumes after Iran cuts
By Christopher Johnson
LONDON | Mon Feb 6, 2012 9:55am EST
http://reut.rs/yvGWid

Yep, same here.

Cosmondo, he, she or more likely "it" is everywhere. I've put him on ignore. If any of its posts is interesting or relevant somebody is bound to comment on it and it's then that I look for the original post and read it thereby saving myself many hours of reading irrelevant articles.

RS6

Where's everyone gone? Has this board been taken-over by SpikeyDT?
Posts from Spikey are often interesting but its getting a bit ridiculous now.
Ease up Spikey. Is it only Afren that's getting "Spiked" or are other sites also getting the SpikeyDT treatment.

Afren exploration drilling commences offshore Ghana
Monday, February 06, 2012
http://bit.ly/zBkDho

Afren reports Ghana drilling
GROWTH COMPANY
06/02/2012
West Africa-focused oil and gas concern Afren (AFR) announced drilling has begun off the coast of Ghana.
http://bit.ly/xkzw5h

New well for Ghana
Posted 06.02.2012 10:31:03 av John Bradbury
http://bit.ly/yNKYDU

Eni starts Keta block drilling
Andrew Hobbs 06 February 2012 08:57 GMT
http://bit.ly/w77RGh

Afren and Eni spud Nunya-1X exploration well in Ghana
February 06. at 9:01 am
http://bit.ly/z309UM

Drilling starts at Afren's Ghanaian well
By Benjamin Chiou
Mon 06 Feb 2012
http://bit.ly/xgU1bu

COMPANY SNAPSHOT:
February 06. at 8:04 am
http://bit.ly/yHoyx4

DNO and Tawke in Kurdistan: How an Iraq oil giant has emerged
06/02/2012
Tore Lilloe-Olsen
http://bit.ly/ycmgKb

Nils A. Bang

Exploration drilling commences offshore Ghana
Date : 06/02/2012 @ 07:00
Source : UK Regulatory (RNS & others)
Stock : Afren (AFR)
Quote : 134.0 0.0 (0.00%) @ 05:00
http://bit.ly/zQELeZ

Companies Lining Up to Explore Oil Prospects
If 2011 was a record year for elections in Africa, it was also the year frontier exploration for oil and gas came of age.
http://bit.ly/wRwxXx

perhaps he should apply for a listing in Africa if its so developed !