The tiny Irish stock on the brink of landing 'the first' post-sanction oil deal in Iraq. Ref 'Fleet Street Letter' 12-04-04..

Chartist2004,28 you say bloody hell.

dave , if you can see the traders thread , Kyoto has just given an explanation of whats happening

Just shows, shit happens when you have a busy morning!!

Skids, you are the master of understatement!!!
Whatever the sp does today, you can guarantee it'll go lower tomorrow when those not siiting at a computer catch up on the news. On that basis alone, to day is NOT the time to buy.

Oh well, it's time to sell my body.......

Don't worry, this was predicted, hold on if you can.
My gut reaction is positive RNS is about to come.



Heritage Oil Corporation has announced that it has formed a strategic alliance by way of a joint venture with Eagle Group of Iraq, an economic and industrial entity within the Autonomous Region of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Heritage and Eagle Group have incorporated a jointly owned company, Heritage Erbil Oil Limited (Heritage Erbil) with an authorized share capital of $25 million. Heritage Erbil in turn has incorporated K Petroleum Company (KPC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Heritage Erbil, in Iraq and registered KPC in both Baghdad and Erbil (in the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan).

Heritage and Eagle Group will each hold a 42.5 percent share interest in KPC, while Turkish investors will hold the remaining 15 percent.

Micael Gulbenkian, Chairman and CEO of Heritage Oil Corporation, said: "Because of my family's centuries-old links to Iraq and the region, I have been able to visit Iraq regularly during the last two years. My great grandfather and great uncle were closely associated with the development of the Middle East oil industry. In fact, the Gulbenkian family was fundamentally involved with the establishment of Iraq Petroleum Company in the 1920s and the drilling of the first well in Kirkuk in 1927. My father for decades since the 1950s was associated with the development of the Iraqi Oil industry and, by investing in numerous social and development programs played a very important role in the fields of education, health, arts and science for the benefit of the Iraqi people. I have been touched with the warm reception I have enjoyed within Iraq in general and the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan in particular. As a result of my family's historical connections in the area, this joint venture could have the ability to transform Heritage Oil Corp. in the short to medium term."

Nechirvan Barzani, the Prime Minister of the Regional
Government of Kurdistan, stated: "We are delighted that Eagle Group has entered into this joint venture with Heritage. We believe both parties are genuinely committed to the development of oil and gas in the Region within a framework of a close working relation with our Regional Government and the Ministry of Oil in Baghdad, utilizing available local resources. The Company should be in a position to commence its activities immediately in view of the stability prevailing in the Region, which is far more stable than other parts of Iraq. KPC in view of its regional local strategy is ideally placed to obtain licences, with the support of the central government and ourselves, to operate fields in the North."

Heritage is responsible for the overall operation and management of Heritage Erbil and KPC. Heritage is actively recruiting local technical staff to commence a detailed investigation of the development potential of the Kurdistan Region.

KPC will be working in close collaboration with the Ministry of Oil of Iraq. The company has been incorporated with the knowledge and support of the Ministry. Discussions have already commenced about awarding a license to KPC containing proven reserves with the possibility of early production.

The company anticipates that during this interim period when there is an absence of hydrocarbon legislation in country the license might initially be a service agreement, with a view to converting this into a production sharing contract. KPC, however, has a two-phase strategy: to target projects with significant proven reserves with a plan to produce over 50,000 barrels per day while assessing further known potential reserves in the Region; and to carry out initial technical and exploration work over parts of Northern Iraq which have yet to be explored.

According to Heritage, the oil potential of Iraq is huge, with estimated proven reserves of more than 112 billion barrels of oil and 100 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. It is reported that fields in Northern Iraq contain estimated reserves of 36 billion barrels, and less than 10 percent of the Region has been explored.

Barzani and Gulbenkian both stated during a meeting in October this year: "We view KPC as an important element in the oil and gas exploration and development in the Northern Regions of Iraq."

Heritage is an international oil and gas corporation, with principal properties situated in the Republic of Congo, Oman and Uganda. Heritage's registered office is located in Calgary, Alberta.

The Company's Common Shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol HOC.

Out at 42,back to the sandwich.

Have just found this on FYB-
have spoken to Reuters in N york, London and to a bloke in thier Baghdad office just a minute ago.

He asked me if I was from PET !?! but the story is that he got the info from a source at the MOO who he thinks is good for info... however, this is not, I repeat not, official news (although it could be correct). An updated posting is going onto the Reuters site in about half an hour he suggested ... so watch this space with anticipation.....

felix

Bugger.. jumped back in at 43p only to find out that I have to go out for lunch & Abbey wont do a stop loss... its time to shut my eyes & hope like hell.. what a brilliant way to trade.

A quick 925,fingers crossed for a 35 slide down.

Two questions:

What are people's views on where the sp will settle, given that there has at least been some good news recently in the Jordan agreement?

How does the Reuters news, if correct, affect Block 6? Wasn't this supposed to be next to the Jordanian border and hence the most likely one for PET to win?

Just released:

CORRECTED - UPDATE 1-Iraq awards first postwar oilfield contracts
Thu Dec 16, 2004 05:57 AM ET
Printer Friendly | Email Article | Reprints | RSS
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In Baghdad story "UPDATE 1-Iraq awards first postwar oilfield contracts" please read in fifth paragraph Ahmed Chamma,... instead of Nasser Chamma... (correcting first name).
A corrected repetition follows:


(Adds details)

BAGHDAD, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Iraq's oil ministry has awarded the country's first postwar oilfield development contracts to Turkish and Canadian firms, an oil official said on Thursday.

Turkey's Everasia won the contract to rehabilitate the Khurmala Dome field in the north and Canada's Ironhorse Oil & Gas Inc (IOG.V: Quote, Profile, Research) will develop the Himrin field, said the the official who declined to be named.

The projects aim to realise Khurmala's potential to produce 100,000 barrels per day and raise output at the Himrin field.

The contracts involve constructing new flow lines, building gas separation stations and measures to stop water emerging from wells. Drilling will be done by the ministry's digging division.

Ahmed Chamma, another ministry official in charge of projects, declined to confirm the companies that won the contracts but said that their names had been presented to the council of ministers for approval.

Chamma said the ministry was studying offers for another contract to raise the output of the Suba-Luhais field from 50,000 to 180,000 bpd.

The cost of the three projects combined has been estimated at $500 million.

Dexter I'm back with you, have jumped back in with a tiny 30,000 @ 44 pence. Lets hope the news is not bloody official, how many pissed off PET holders would there be if the news from Reuters proved to be wrong!!!
Although in all honesty I do not think it is, PET was a gamble and I lost it is as simple as that, the info pointed one way, the result was the other!!! I'm back in as Sudan info will be released next month, there is still the 3rd tender, block 6 and Jordan, a 60% drop is a huge over reaction by the market

Tokyo

Been a stable last 15mins,looks like the fun is over !!

By no means...................

From another bb.

PET have been contacted and say that they have not been contacted by MOO and they normally would be.

Could be an almighty hoax....................

tokyo,
did it take ages to confirm your by?, and did you lose out over all?,

from advfn

Looks like bad news,

It has been confirmed on reuters,

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's oil ministry has awarded the country's first post-war oilfield development contracts to Turkish and Canadian firms, an oil official said on Thursday.

Turkey's Everasia won the contract to develop the Khurmala Dome field in the north and Canada's Ironhorse Oil & Gas Inc will develop the Himrin field, said the official who declined to be named.

If approved by the cabinet, the agreements will be the first oil deals with foreign firms Iraq has struck since the end of Saddam Hussein's rule.

The news knocked over half the value off shares in Petrel Resources, a small Irish exploration company, which said on its Web Site it had been hoping to develop Khurmala.

The projects aim to realize Khurmala's potential to produce 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) and raise output at the Himrin field. The ministry is still studying offers for another contract to raise the output of the Suba-Luhais field from 50,000 to 180,000 bpd.

The contracts involve constructing new flow lines, building gas separation stations and measures to stop water emerging from wells. Drilling will be done by the ministry's digging division.

Unlike production sharing contracts Iraq could negotiate with oil majors after elections due in January, the contracts do not involve contractors after construction or as operators.

Ahmed Chamma, another ministry official in charge of projects, declined to confirm the two companies that won the contracts but said that their names had been presented to the council of ministers for approval.

The cost of the three projects combined has been estimated at $500 million. Their small size and scope has failed to attract the interest of major international oil companies.

Awarding the projects has been repeatedly delayed, along with other tenders to study the recovery potential of the Kirkuk and Rumaila fields, which account for most of the country's exports.

Engineer Hazem Sultan, who is in charge of reservoir studies, said no decision has been yet made on whom the projects will go to.

It remains to be seen whether the international projects, which were designed before the Iraq War last year, could be executed on time given the lack security in the country.

Iraq has yet to restore production capacity lost from bombing during the 1980-1988 war with Iran war and later wars, as well as crushing economic sanctions.

Oil officials hope to double Iraq's 2.6 million bpd output by the end of the decade

The drop was that fast today that I couldn't sell online for a 20p drop due to volume.

I do find it strange that the canadian companies shares havn't moved!!!

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7112952

TSX hasn't opened yet.

I don't quite know why its taking PET so long to clarify the news.. surely its not hard for them to find out whats going on & I must say that its hard to believe that their contacts on the ground didn't get a whiff of the news if it is true considering its importance.