.

Financing now complete.....and ready to roll with the news in the months ahead.

:)


RNS Number : 2629S
Ascent Resources PLC
14 May 2009




Ascent Resources plc / Epic: AST / Index: AIM / Sector: Oil and Gas

14th May 2009

Ascent Resources plc ('Ascent' or 'the Company')

5m Equity Line of Credit Secured with GEM Global Yield Fund


Ascent Resources plc, the AIM-traded oil and gas exploration and production company, has entered into an agreement with GEM Global Yield Fund Limited ('GEM') whereby GEM has made available to the Company an equity line of credit of up to 5 million ('the Facility'). The Facility will be used to assist in funding the Company's exploration projects not covered by production revenue, and if appropriate, to finance investments in additional exploration projects that are outside the investment profile of the Ascent/San Severina asset management joint venture ('the JV') announced in October 2008.


Ascent Managing Director Jeremy Eng said, 'This arrangement fits well into our overall financing strategy and provides us with funding certainty and flexibility. We have an extensive portfolio of production and prospective exploration assets across Europe and this facility will assist in developing these assets. Additionally, the facility will also enable us to pursue further exploration projects not considered under our agreement with San Severina, at a time where there are distinct opportunities of acquiring distressed assets.


'The JV is progressing well and we look forward to announcing significant transactions which will provide both Ascent and San Severina with equity interests in oil and gas projects primarily outside of Ascent's European focus area in the near future. These projects will underpin our partnership, in which San Severina aims to invest an initial €100 million in oil and gas producing, appraisal or development projects.'


Under the terms of the Facility, the Company is able to make draw downs of cash, at times of its choosing, by issuing new ordinary shares to GEM. The equity line is available for three years from 13 May 2009 and draw downs cannot be called by GEM. The Company may issue a subscription notice requesting GEM to subscribe for a number of shares up to a maximum of 5 times the average daily trading volume in the 15 trading days immediately preceding the date of the subscription notice. GEM has the right to buy between 50% and 130% of the subscribed shares and can buy up to 200% with Company consent. The shares will be priced at a 9% discount to the average closing mid price of the shares over the 15 trading days immediately following the issue of the subscription notice. Furthermore, the Company has issued warrants to GEM over 15,000,000 shares which are exercisable at 10.16p for a period of five years from the date of issue.

Looks quite decent to me.

15m warrants at 10.16p, fine thats the sweetener and worth 1.5m cash to Ascent if utilised.

But the drawdown is along with a floating price mechanism, so if they are successful at Gazatta or Anagni (or indeed at both), the money gets much cheaper, and its called by AST and not GEM.

The amount of any dilution is subject to success with the drill bit.


Wonder what "distressed assets" Jeremy is planning on buying ?



Also nice little update on the SS deal, seems to be going well then.

Todays write up and opinion from OB of yesterdays news.

http://www.oilbarrel.com/news/display_news/article/ascent-resources-extends-credit-line-as-investors-await-news-of-first-san-severina-transaction/771.html

Ascent Resources Extends Credit Line As Investors Await News Of First San Severina Transaction

Ascent Resources has extended its credit facilities through a 5 million arrangement with GEM Global Yield Fund Limited, US$2.7 billion investment group. This move equips Ascent with the financial headroom to explore its existing assets or acquire distressed assets. Managing director Jeremy Eng said the arrangement provided funding “certainty and flexibility”. This is important because Ascent is at a very interesting point in its history, with a number of key developments promising much for the future.

The first such development is the alliance with San Severina Holdings, a Swiss based investment company, which was signed in October 2008 and has been described by analysts at Fox Davies Capital as “a game changing agreement”. The two companies agreed to form a joint venture that will acquire minority interests in upstream projects. Ascent will supply management services for these oil and gas properties in return for a carried equity stake in the projects while San Severina, an investment fund that has been active since 1972, will put up the cash as part of a wider plan to commit an initial €100 million to a new oil and gas investment division. As Jeremy Eng told oilbarrel.com at the time, “This is something very different for the industry. We think it’s got fantastic potential.”

But since then, this “fantastic potential” has been slow to materialise. Shareholders, frustrated by the lack of news since October, will have been gladdened by Thursday’s announcement, which saw Eng report that the joint venture was “progressing well” with the pair working on “significant transactions” that might be announced in the near future. In an announcement that will do little to quash rumours that Ascent is eying producing and development assets in the US, Eng confirmed that the transactions in question will lie “primarily outside of Ascent’s European focus area”.

The second key development is the imminent spudding of the Gazzata-1 well in Italy. Gazzata-1 will target an 8 sq km gas prospect, as defined on the seismic, with a possible 100 bcf-plus gas resource. This could be a company-maker and investors have been keen for the company to drill up this promising structure in Italy’s prolific Po Valley for some time. But Ascent was stymied here by its farm-in partner Otto Energy, which in December asked Ascent to hold off drilling the well until after mid-March. This was the second such request from ASX-listed Otto, which had been grappling with production problems on its Galoc field in the Philippines that weakened its financial position.

With Otto now back on track, Gazzata is, at the time of writing, due to spud any moment. Otto’s farm-in terms will see the Australian firm earn a 50 per cent interest in the Po Valley well in return for carrying Ascent’s costs, making this high impact well all the more appetising for investors. They now won’t have long to wait for news on the project: the Gazzata prospect lies at a depth of 2,100 metres and should take about a month to complete so investors should anticipate some news flow before the end of June.

Investors are also keen to hear more about the company’s ventures in Hungary, where Ascent is now producing gas from the PEN-104A well in eastern Hungary at a rate of 2.5 million cubic feet of gas per day (Ascent has a 45.23 per cent interest). This production income will help to underpin the company’s other exploration, appraisal and development projects in Hungary, where there is plenty of potential to add to the production tally in fairly short order.

According to analyst Stephane Foucaud of Fox Davies Capital, further development of the PEN-104 assets plus the redevelopment of the Bajcsa field in the southwest of Hungary (Ascent holds a 38.73 per cent interest) could see the company generate US$12 million in cash flows in 2010 and US$22 million a year from 2011. These are healthy numbers and will separate Ascent from many of its cash-strapped AIM peers.

The latest credit arrangement with GEM adds additional flexibility to the funding mix (Ascent doesn’t yet have enough producing wells to provide redundancy should one go offline as happened earlier this year when the PEN-104 well was shut-in for maintenance on some third-party equipment). Under the terms of the 5 million facility, Ascent can draw down cash by issuing new ordinary shares to GEM. The AIM company can issue a subscription notice requesting GEM to subscribe for a number of shares up to a maximum of five times the average daily trading volume in the 15 trading days immediately preceding the subscription notice. GEM has the right to buy between 50 and 130 per cent of the subscribed shares and can buy up to 200 per cent with Company consent. The shares will be priced at a nine per cent discount to the average closing mid price over the 15 trading days following the issue of the subscription notice.

The Gazatta-1 well should spud (start to drill) before the 28th of May, normal rig up problems going to delay it a few days.

And nows its underway...............


Otto Operations Update


http://www.ottoenergy.com/irm/Company/ShowPage.aspx?CPID=1332&EID=10000000



......................Italy – Cento‐Bastiglia Permits

Drilling commenced on 19 May 2009 in the Cento‐Bastiglia Exploration Permits
located in the Po Valley, onshore Italy.

The operator, AIM‐listed Ascent Resources Plc (Ascent) advises that the primary
target lies at approximately 2,100 metres in Pliocene sandstones. The well will take approximately 3‐4 weeks to reach target depth assuming trouble free drilling.

Gazzata‐1 is being drilled with the new Perazzoli HH‐200 drilling rig.
Otto is earning a 50% working interest via the funding of the Gazzata‐1 well and a second well if Gazzata‐1 is a significant discovery (over 10 bcf of gas). There is a cap on the expenditure for both the Gazzata‐1 and the second well, above which the contribution is 50/50 between Otto and Ascent.

The Gazzata Prospect

The Gazzata‐1 exploration well targets P50 prospective gas resources of over 100 Bcf in a seismically defined amplitude anomaly of over eight square kilometres in area.

The minimum economic threshold for a commercial gas discovery in the Po valley with its excellent pipeline infrastructure and high European gas pricing is calculated by Otto to be less than 10Bcf of recoverable gas.......................

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=200905210700146151S


RNS Number : 6151S
Ascent Resources PLC
21 May 2009

Slovenian Exploration Project Farmout

Ascent Resources plc, the AIM-traded oil and gas exploration and production company, through its wholly owned subsidiary Nemmoco Slovenia Corporation ('NSC'), has farmed out one half of its 80% participation in the Eastern Slovenian Exploration Project to Aspect Energy International ('AEI'), a subsidiary of Denver based Aspect Holdings LLC ('Aspect'). The Eastern Slovenian Exploration Project is situated on the eastern edge of the Pannonian Basin, covering 864 square kilometres of the 2,473 square kilometre Pomurje Regional Exploration Area, adjacent to the Hungarian and Croatian borders. The exploration licence is held by Nafta Geoterm d.o.o., a subsidiary of state-owned energy and petrochemicals conglomerate Nafta Lendava d.o.o., which retains a 20% carried interest.

Work on the exploration project has already commenced with a comprehensive geological and geophysical study in its final stages. A 3-D seismic acquisition, as well as appraisal and exploration drilling is planned during the coming year. Of a total of 65 exploration wells in the region, nearly half (27 of 65) reported hydrocarbon shows or produced oil or gas. Both AEI's sister company, Hungarian Horizon Energy ('HHE') and Ascent's 45.23% owned PetroHungaria Kft, have experienced some success in the exploration and production of gas in the Hungarian part of the Pannonian Basin, with HHE currently being the second largest gas producer in Hungary.

Expenditure on the exploration project will be equally shared between NSC and AEI; however, AEI will pay the first €1 million and a disproportional payment mechanism will apply until a cumulative €3 million has been spent.

Ascent's Managing Director Jeremy Eng said, 'This is the second exploration partnership that Ascent has undertaken with Aspect, which over the past five years has successfully explored and exploited hydrocarbon reserves in neighbouring Hungary. We look forward to continuing their success in Slovenia. Previous exploration work in the area has provided encouraging results and we look forward to the completion and interpretation of the geoscience studies and commencement of further appraisal and exploration drilling.'

* * ENDS * *

Well i decided to rejoin the party this am,hugh potential in this company imv?
Just noticed my trade down as a sell?
cyril

cyril, yes there is a seller (RAB still offloading) at around 8.5p, so most of the time ignore the advertised prices you can buy between 8.5p to 8.6p.

The advertised prices are higher simply to make margin traders pay more, what AST needs are buyers of real stock to clear out RAB, not margin money in for a few days or weeks.

The irony is that should Ascent strike commercial gas at Gazatta, then its likely it would then change from being "outside of RAB's interest" and so a sell by them, to being "off interest with a major project" and so they would change from seller to buyer.

Such are the ways of the fund manager and the rules of the fund................

In case anyone is wondering, this farm out is only relative to the Eastern Exploration assets, which they had an 80% stake in, now reduced to 40% but with free carry.

They are also due to farm out other Slovenian assets, for info here is a snippet from the previous Fox-Davies write up on Slovenia.

http://www.fox-davies.com/media/40194/ic_ascent_01.03.09.pdf


Petisovsci Dolina Re-Development Project (Shallow) - 45% interest

This is an oil play. The work being carried out by Ascent in 2008 involves a complete re-assessment of the geological, geophysical and engineering information from the fields. This work is resulting in development of a new field reservoir model and the Joint Venture now plans to acquire 3D seismic over the field area as well as considering proposals for reentering a number of existing wells. There is a potential to book 10.7 mmbbl oil 2P reserves. We have assumed half that number as contingent resources (rather than 2P reserves). A CPR is due in 2009 following 3D seismic. Depth is about 1,500m.


Petisovsci Dolina Re-Development Project (Deep) - 15.75% interest

This is a deep tight gas play. The partnership has been evaluating the deep E1 sands which were tested and flowed gas in the D-14 well in the fourth quarter 2007. Further well intervention work is planned for the D-14 well and the results of the 3-D seismic will assist in planned future operations. The company estimates that the field could hold 579 bcf gross prospective resources (50% chance of success). We have assumed half that figure. Obligations on the licences are limited to seismic activities before end 2010. Depth is about 2,200m. Ascent is considering farming down to San Severina. The development plan includes 3 deep gas wells and 5 oil wells with an initial plateau gross production of 1.5 kboe/d by 2011 (2010 according to Ascent). Gross capex is estimated at $13m.


East Slovenia Exploration Permit - 80% interest

In July 2008, the company signed a Preliminary Agreement for an 80% participation in the exploration of the East Slovenia Exploration Permit to the north of the Petisovsci oil and gas field redevelopment project. The East Slovenian Project covers an area of 864 sq. km over three separate blocks within the Pomurje Regional Exploration Area. The current work programme envisages a regional exploration study followed by seismic activities in 2009.

Looks like RAB have finally stopped selling now then.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/article.aspx?id=200905211711176831S

RNS Number : 6831S
Ascent Resources PLC
21 May 2009

Holdings in Company

Ascent was informed on 21 May 2009 by Credit Suisse Client Nominees (UK) Limited ('Credit Suisse'), that as at 20 May 2009, Credit Suisse was interested in 17,208,439 ordinary shares of 0.1 pence each in the Company, representing approximately 5.65% of the issued share capital of the Company.


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

RNS Number : 7542S
Ascent Resources PLC
22 May 2009

The following replaces the announcement made on the 21 May 2009 at 17:11 under RNS Number: 6831S.

The full amended release appears below:

Ascent Resources plc ('Ascent' or the 'Company')
Holdings in Company

Ascent was informed on 21 May 2009 by RAB Energy Fund Limited ('RAB Energy'), that on 20 May 2009 RAB Energy held a total of 17,208,439 ordinary shares of 0.1p each in the Company registered in the name of Credit Suisse Client Nominees (UK) Limited, which represents 5.65% of the Company's issued ordinary share capital.

From t1ps.com (EK)
"My informant has this morning updated me on Ascent (AST) which is coming to the boil. I bought another 500,000 at 8.1p yesterday. RAB have stopped selling. And, more importantly, the Gazzata-1 gas exploration well in Italy is currently being drilled, using a new 200 ton drilling rig which is part-owned by Ascent. That will bite its way down to the primary target pretty swiftly. The chance of success is high - but of course it's not a certainty. And the PEN gas well in Hungary is now back in production after the successful work-over. So a decent income stream to Ascent is restored. It looks to my informant as if exciting times may be on the horizon for AST and its shareholders.

Ascent is also readying itself to drill Agnani-2, an oil exploration well in Italy, in the near future. This well is targeting a reservoir believed to contain a potential 30 million barrels of oil. This reservoir was drilled two years ago with the Agnani-1 well, which did find some oil. However, it encountered various difficulties and the testing could not be successfully completed. This target is like Gazzata-1, another potential company-maker.

Further, Ascent's joint venture with the investment fund San Severina Holding of Switzerland is progressing well, and news on the first investment is expected soon. The agreement provides Ascent and San Severina with equity interests in oil and gas projects primarily outside Ascent's current European focus. San Severina is aiming to invest an initial 100 million euros in production, appraisal and development projects; Ascent provides various know-how and management services, and in return receives a free 20% carry on the upside. With such funds available, Ascent is surely motoring."

As expected the sale of part of the Jolly Ranch Project (HAWK and RF) is to San Severina, and Ascent Resources will get 4% of the project.

HAWK RNS :

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=200906010700120888T


AST RNS :

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=200906010700120988T



The main thing for me is this now puts an end to the nonsense spouted by a few that San Severina had no money, its all a fake or fraud :) LOL

Looking forward to more deals in which AST gets 20% free of the total purchased by San Severina as payment for their efforts.

Reacted well, as it should really.

4% of Jolly Ranch area for free.

If SS take the options too, AST get 20% of that too............all for free.

And this is part of the "initial 100m Euro" that SS will invest.

On a pure cash basis that means AST get 20m Euro equivalent in assets.

But of course, SS are looking to get 200% or 300% returns, so that initial 20% that AST get, being 20m Euro equivalent, could be worth 40m or 60m Euro's in a few years.

And thats just, as said, the "initial 100m" :)

Things look very interesting as AST becomes more "production" orientated than it ever has been before, but still with enourmous "exploration" potential upside.

Gazatta-1 alone could be worth from 0p to 100p net to Ascent, depending on a find, being commercial and then how big.

http://proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/5884/ascent-resources-to-get-4-pct-stake-in-colorado-project-as-part-of-san-severina-jv-5884.html


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New comment, click HERE

Now in the first "seal" which should have been circa 1750m according to my info. Once they get drilling again they move into the potential stacked gas pockets of the structure down to TD circa 2400m prior to decision to extend to 3000m if good gas shows present in main target at 2100m depth.

Given they are casing down into the top of the initial seal, when drilling restarts there are numerous potential gas pockets down to 2100m main target.

So any "leaks" should be next week................




http://www.ottoenergy.com/irm/Company/ShowPage.aspx?CPID=1342&EID=11399747

Wed 3rd of June.

Italy – Cento‐Bastiglia Permits

Drilling commenced on 19 May 2009 in the Cento‐Bastiglia Exploration Permits
located in the Po Valley, onshore Italy. The Gazzata‐1 exploration well was drilled
to a depth of 1,764m and logging carried out. 12 ” casing is currently being run to
1,750m. Casing and cementing is expected to be completed in the next few days
and then Gazzata‐1 will recommence drilling ahead to the target depth.

I have put a couple of posts today on TMF about the potential of the Po Valley and the update from Otto yesterday.

The link is below for the whole thread, the two posts I have put on today you need to scroll down to find.


http://boards.fool.co.uk/Message.asp?mid=11554792&sort=whole


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The following is from the Deltana presentation, who were going to farm in, but were replaced by Otto Energy as the farm in partner. It shows a lot of detail about the Gazatta prospect, from which you can gain a better understand. It mentions nothing about the potential extension from 2400m to 3000m depth and testing of the deep , and we know this will only happen IF they find gas in the primary target. Its a shame the seismic is not shown down to 3000m as it would have been itneresting to see.

Link is : http://ss01.boardroomradio.com/files/DLT/DLT%20-%2020071003.swf



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