(DES.L) Desire Petroleum PLC Buy/Sell

RNS Number : 1881C Desire Petroleum PLC 09 November 2009
For immediate release 9 November 2009

Desire Petroleum plc

("Desire" or the "Company")

Results of General Meeting and Total Voting Rights

Desire Petroleum (AIM:DES), the oil and gas exploration company wholly focused on the North Basin of the Falkland Islands, is pleased to announce that all of the resolutions proposed at the General Meeting held today were duly passed.

Background

On 21 October 2009, Desire announced that it had conditionally placed with new institutional investors 60,000,000 new ordinary shares ("Placing Shares") of 1p each ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 70 pence per share thereby raising gross proceeds of £42 million (the "Placing").

The Placing Shares will rank pari passu with the existing Ordinary Shares including the right to all dividends and other distributions declared, paid or made after their date of issue. Following the passing of the resolutions at the General Meeting, dealings in the Placing Shares are expected to commence on 10 November 2009.

Following the issue of the 60,000,000 Placing Shares the Company has 289,715,445 Ordinary Shares in issue.

For the purposes of the Disclosure and Transparency Rules, the Company's total issued share capital at the date of this notice consists of 289,715,445 ordinary shares of 1p each with one voting right per share. The above figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company, under the Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

Proposed Open Offer

In addition, in Desire's announcement of 21 October 2009, the Board stated that it was Desire's intention that Shareholders should have the opportunity to participate in the raising of further funds by the Company.

The documentation for the Open Offer, which will include an excess application facility, is currently being finalised with Desire's advisers and Desire intends to launch the Open Offer as soon as possible.

For further information please contact:

Desire Petroleum plc
Stephen Phipps, Chairman 020 7436 0423

Ian Duncan, Chief Executive Officer

Seymour Pierce Limited 020 7107 8000

Corporate Finance

Jonathan Wright Christopher Wren

Corporate Broking

Richard Redmayne

Buchanan Communications 020 7466 5000

Ben Willey Ben Romney

Seymour Pierce Limited, which is regulated by the Financial Services Authority and is a member of the London Stock Exchange, is acting as nominated adviser and broker exclusively for the Company in connection with the Placing. Its responsibilities as the Company's nominated adviser under the AIM Rules are owed solely to the London Stock Exchange and are not owed to the Company or to any Director or any other person in respect of his decision to acquire ordinary shares in the Company in reliance on any part of this announcement. No representation or warranty, express or implied, is made by Seymour Pierce Limited as to any of the contents of this announcement for which the Directors and the Company are responsible (without limiting the statutory rights of any person to whom this announcement is issued). Seymour Pierce Limited has not authorised the contents of, or any part of, this announcement, and no liability whatsoever is accepted by Seymour Pierce Limited for the accuracy of information or opinions contained in this announcement or for the omission of any material information. Seymour Pierce Limited will not be offering advice and will not otherwise be responsible for providing customer protections to recipients of this announcement in respect of the Placing or any acquisition of shares in the Company.

This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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11:31GMT 06Nov2009-Desire Petroleum, Rockhopper up on IC tip

Shares in Falklands oil and gas explorer Desire Petroleum and its partner Rockhopper rise by 4.3 and 5.2 percent respectively after comment in the Investors Chronicle sparks investor support for oil companies with assets in the region.
"There's a mention in the Investors Chronicle and Rockhopper, Desire Petroleum and Borders & Southern Petroleum (up 2.4 pct) are all getting pulled up as a sector move," a trader says.
"Access to the area has always been a problem in the past and it looks like they (Desire and its partners Rockhopper) managed to get a rig out there which opens it up a lot," he says.
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11:18GMT 06Nov2009-Hutchison Chi-Med up on drug data

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"It also removes a significant downgrade risk of the company not being able to license HMPL-004 ... the data should be compelling enough to attract licensing partners," the broker says in note.
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09:56GMT 06Nov2009-Gt Portland buoyed by JP Morgan upgrade

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09:00GMT 06Nov2009-Antofagasta higher; Citi upgrades

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08:49GMT 06Nov2009-Irish banks up, bad bank law progresses

Shares in Ireland's two biggest banks rise by up to 10 percent after the lower house of parliament passes a law establishing a 54 billion euro ($80.2 billion) "bad bank" to the upper house and following share rises in the United States.
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08:44GMT 06Nov2009-BA takes off on above forecast results

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08:36GMT 06Nov2009-FTSE small caps up 0.2 pct at the open

The FTSE Small Cap Index rises 0.2 percent in early trade, outperforming London's blue chip index, which is flat, while the FTSE 250 up 0.2 percent.
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LONDON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Desire Petroleum Plc:

RNS Number : 1723B Desire Petroleum PLC 21 October 2009

For immediate release 21 October 2009

Desire Petroleum plc

("Desire" or the "Company")

Placing to raise £42 million

and

Details of proposed open offer

and

Notice of general meeting

Desire Petroleum (AIM:DES), the oil and gas exploration company wholly focused on the North Basin of the Falkland Islands, is pleased to announce that it has conditionally placed 60,000,000 new ordinary shares of 1p each ("Placing Shares") at an issue price of 70p per share, thereby raising £42 million (approximately US$68 million) before expenses (the "Placing").

The Placing Shares, which have been placed predominantly with new institutional investors by Seymour Pierce Limited, will represent approximately 20.7 per cent. of the Company's Enlarged Share Capital.

Background

On 10 September 2009, Desire announced that it had exchanged a letter of intent with Diamond Offshore Drilling (UK) Ltd for the drilling unit the "Ocean Guardian" to undertake a four well minimum drilling campaign in the North

Falkland Basin. Desire also announced that it had secured options to drill up to a further four wells for itself or its partners.

Subsequently, on 2 October 2009, Desire announced that the formal drilling contract for the Ocean Guardian had been signed and disclosed that the contract is for a four well, minimum eighty day campaign, for which the Ocean Guardian could earn maximum total revenue of US$19.6 million with mobilisation and demobilisation fees estimated to be US$16 million.

In addition Desire announced that it had increased the number of option wells from four to six.

With approximately US$40 million of current funds, Desire already has sufficient funds to drill two wells in the planned drilling campaign. This, together with the planned drilling of two further wells by Desire's partners, Arcadia Petroleum Limited ("Arcadia") and Rockhopper Exploration plc ("Rockhopper"), and subject to their approval of the drilling budgets, results in the four well drilling commitment being met.

However, as indicated in the announcements referred to above, it is Desire's intention to drill as many different play types as possible with the Ocean Guardian. Fourteen different play types have been identified in the North

Falkland Basin of which only three have been drilled to date. Prudent exploration dictates that as many of these play types as possible should be drilled to help unlock the potential of the Basin.

This planned approach to the exploration campaign has, in the Directors' opinion, been endorsed by the analysis of the prospective resources of the Company prepared by Senergy (GB) Limited "Senergy".

Senergy has evaluated Desire's top ten prospects, namely Liz, Ann, Alpha, Dawn, Jacinta, Beth, Ninky, Rachel, Helen and Pam, and the key conclusions are as follows: