Oil and gas play Elixir Petroleum is close to farming out some of the Norwegian North Sea Leopard prospect.

Western Australia-based Elixir, which says it expects £425,000 cash flow a month from two of its wells in the Gulf of Mexico, expects seismic data in the New Year from Block SL-4 on the coast of Sierra Leone, where managing director Andrew Ross suggests could be part of ‘a new oil province’. Of the company’s North Sea prospects, Ross says he is most excited, not by Leopard, but by Mulle, where the company has opened the data for potential partners.

At present, the company argues potential reserves are likely to be in the order of 17 million barrels of oil equivalent, with Elixir entitled to 6.8 million barrels as 40 per cent participant.
With analysts suggesting the company’s Mulle stake could be worth £80 million, even with oil a third below its current price at $65 a barrel, the company is looking for partners to share the cost of a £40 million two-well appraisal programme.

Elixir’s shares, which hit 46p in early 2006, have collapsed all the way to 4p today. That values the company at £7.6 million, which seems a grudging rating.

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Elixir Petroleum	AIM	£3.31m	1.75p	0.00p
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Other company articles:
Exploration Insights by Robert Tyerman			06/10/2008
Elixir poised for farm out			18/09/2008
Mexican fillip for Elixir			16/05/2008
Elixir lines up new deals			30/08/2007