Gulf starts at Sheikh Adi-2 25/05/2012
Iraq-focused oil explorer Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) has begun drilling at the Sheikh Adi-2 well in the Sheikh Adi block.
Oil and gas play Petroceltic International sounds upbeat after trimming first-half losses 16.3 per cent to $4.1 million (£2.5 million).
The Dublin-based company ended June with $90 million (£56 million) cash after raising £37 million at 10.5p in May and farming out 18.375 per cent of its stake in Algeria's promising Isarene gas production-sharing contract to leading Italian power utility Enel.
AIM-quoted Petroceltic, steered by entrepreneurial chief executive Brian O'Cathain, will retains 56.625 per cent of the Isarene contact once the Italian group has paid up to $101 million (£63.5 million) towards already incurred and future costs of the project. Enel has agreed to pay up to $75 million as well next year, according to the level of recoverable reserves established in the project and approved by the Algerian authorities. Algeria's state company, Sonatrach, will hold 25 per cent of the Isarene contract.
Elsewhere, Petroceltic has entered into production-sharing contracts with the authorities in the Kurdistan region of Iraq in partnership with the US Hess Corporation and transferred ownership of the Carisio permit in Italy's western Po Valley to Italian oil corporation ENI. O'Cathain declares that 'Petroceltic has the team, the assets and the funding to deliver our ambitious growth objectives.'
Investors have been sceptical, sending Petroceltic shares down from a year's high of 17.1p to 5.36p today. But, if the sector is popular and the potential country risk does not loom too large, they could offer recovery possibilities over the medium to longer term.
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Iraq-focused oil explorer Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) has begun drilling at the Sheikh Adi-2 well in the Sheikh Adi block.
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