Has anyone please got any info on this one? It was supposed to start trading again in July and then August - almost end of August and nothing!

Salym Petroleum Development produced 100,000th tonne of oil from West Salym Field
22-Dec-2005
Salym Petroleum Development NV (SPD) has achieved an important landmark in the development of West Salym, which is the largest of the three Salym fields developed by SPD.

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Salym Petroleum Development NV (SPD) has achieved an important landmark in the development of West Salym, which is the largest of the three Salym fields developed by SPD. On December 20, 2005 the 100,000th tonne of oil was produced from this field whereby SPD has achieved a production level stipulated in the West Salym licence as one of the major SPD commitments for 2005.

The first tonnes of oil were produced from West Salym field just one year ago in mid-December 2004. At the end of November 2005 the key field infrastructure facilities the Central Processing Facility, in-field supply lines, and an oil export pipeline were commissioned for operation. This paved the way for ramping up production and allowed SPD to meet its oil production commitments in the West Salym Licence Area.

For SPD, bringing on stream West Salym and production of more than 100,000 tonne of oil from this field represent the most significant events of 2005, commented SPD CEO Dale Rollins. - We finish this memorable year in good spirit because we have kept our promise to the SPD Shareholders and delivered on our commitments to the Russian Authorities with excellent performance in health, safety, environment protection and social performance including our responsibility to the community. The accomplishments of SPD and its contractors in the realization of Salym Project in 2005 make a solid base and an encouragement for successful tackling of 2006 challenges. The main challenge will be ensuring the total oil production from all three Salym fields next year in excess of 2 million tonnes (around 15 million bbl).

all the other oil producers are moVing up should be sbe turn for a brakeout 440-450 must be our short term leVel. this is on my list as a good play for o6 with such big oil number how can it stay down.

bid speculation in the industry is rife.

SBE will do well to hold off an approach this year

chart (25,50ma and bolly bands) looking just like last August when it put on 100p in about 10days.

with the placing at 400p this is a massive vote of confidence in the future potential, imho could see a 5bagger by 2009...

WHY is it dropping like a stone last 2 days,any views.

MB, can't see that SBE in particular is being singled out; seems to me that a lot of oilies getting hit. SBE is only marginally down from last Friday's close so this week hasn't been as bad as you seem to think.

WDIK, PDYOR.

camlad

Bennfld. sub. for shares is huge,amounts to 620 milliondollars about,apart from a p/up,what will they next acquire,any views.

Good question, mbugger.

According to the press release from 09 Dec 2005:

The introduction of Orton Oil and associated fundraising will be important elements in the Company achieving the following objectives over the next two to four years:
*Creating a major vertically integrated oil company with reserves of 700 million to one billion metric tons
*Attaining levels of oil production between 10 and 12 million tons annually from existing oil fields and through expected acquisitions
*Upgrading the Moscow Refinery with an aim of increasing refining capacity to between 12 and 14 million tons and attain 70%-75% light-ends
*Increasing the number of gas stations operated by the various entities controlled by the Company to approximately 150 in number and attaining Western levels of service at all sites.

I'd expect SBE to go after acquiring more unexplored acreage/licences in the hopes of finding another Salym (i.e. "through expected acquisitions").

BTW good news seems to be developing re Sibneft-Yugra now that Gazprom is involved (see RNS 02Mar2006). Hopefully Gazprom will deal with all Sibneft's nonsense and restore SBE's stake in Yugra . . .

Definitely worth holding on to!!

Up 10p this afternoon - good thing after the heart-stopping nosedive of the last few days!

MMs used to drop bid apparently recklessly to precipitate p.i.s to sell their sharesand then mop them up,also drop bid to faciltate large buyer at agreed low fav.price,but SBE is supposed to trade now under SETS ,but drop for the last week was frightening,and may be due to a trick under SETS,we havnt heard of yet,but rise today is a relief.

Trade today was between 452low to494high,volume rel low 1 mn.,amassive 42 p.swing,not due to any large volatile trading,but probably to do with bennfd. or oil valuations or russian movesbehind the scenes,any views.

I second that, MB.

Frankly I am amazed at how the purchase or sale of just a few shares seem to move the SP by such a wide margin. Unexpected for a co that's now worth a billion pounds. I would certainly welcome any light being shed.

Salym Petroleum Development to increase drilling scope at Salym oilfields
10-Mar-2006
By the end of 2006, a 5th drilling rig will be mobilized for drilling operations at the Salym group of oilfields developed by Salym Petroleum Development NV (SPD).

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On 3 March 2006, SPD signed a contract with one of its major drilling contractors - KCA Deutag - for a Russian-made mobile 200 tonne capacity drilling rig. The new unit will be manufactured during 2006 and put into operation in December 2006. It is to be used for drilling exploration and highly deviated wells, and also for drilling wells into possible high-pressure formations.

Mobilization of the new mobile drilling unit will allow to reduce the unit move time and increase the drilling scope at the Salym fields, commented SPD CEO Dale Rollins. Currently, four Russian-made drilling rigs of two types are in operation at the Salym fields, and they display excellent performance. Since the spring of 2004 till recently about 80 wells have been drilled with Russian-made drilling units at the Upper Salym and West Salym fields. This coming summer drilling operations will start at the Vadelyp fields with the aim to produce first oil by end 2006. SPD is planning to drill over 300 development wells at the Salym group of oilfields during the next three years.

LB - good post!

The SP's a bit choppy of late - anyone got any info?

Royal Dutch/Shell looking for third Russia project
14 March 2006

MOSCOW: Oil major Royal Dutch/Shell wants to expand its Russian operations and add a third big project, despite a huge cost overrun at its Sakhalin Energy venture, the firm's Russia chairman Chris Finlayson said.


"I'm looking for a substantive increase in the size of the business, both in Sakhalin and in west Siberia and potentially a third platform," Finlayson said in an interview.

"I think it will be a platform which is based on remote areas, strong technology input, probably Arctic, but a range of different options." Shell is still smarting from ballooning costs at Sakhalin, a huge liquefied natural gas project off Russia's Pacific coast.

It doubled the Sakhalin cost estimate from $US10 billion ($NZ15.67 billion) to $US20 billion last July, dismaying shareholders and angering the Russian government, which says it will now have to wait much longer before it sees any share of the profit.

Shell has sent "truckloads" of documents to the Russian agency investigating the cost overrun, which Finlayson said was caused by booming prices for inputs such as steel, the strength of the rouble and the project's complexity.

Another extra will be $US300 million to re-route pipelines to avoid harming rare grey whales, a decision taken last year.

But Finlayson said revised calculations carried out by top Russian experts showed Sakhalin remained a very good deal for Russia even at a conservative oil price, and he expected the cost negotiations to end during the third quarter of the year.

The cost hike also jeopardised Shell's plan to swap 25 per cent of Sakhalin out of its total 55 per cent holding for a half share of the massive deep deposits of Zapolyarnoye gas field, owned by Russian gas giant Gazprom.

Finlayson did not put a figure on Zapo's gas and condensate reserves, which Shell wants to market in Europe, but indicated there was more in its deposits than Shell has in Sakhalin.

"We are not going to be doing deals which reduce our reserves," he said.

With the value of Sakhalin Energy slashed by the cost overrun, Shell and Gazprom will spend months haggling over the two sides of the swap. Finlayson said the firms' confidential memorandum of understanding included a way of adjusting the value of the swap in case there was a difference in value.

One adjustment will be for Shell's minority partners in Sakhalin Energy, Japan's Mitsui and Mitsubishi, to give up some of their equity in the project, in which they hold 25 per cent and 20 per cent respectively.

"I think it's an excellent illustration of the strong alignment of the current shareholders in wanting to have Gazprom in this project," said Finlayson.

It is not clear what the Japanese firms will get in return.

Despite the cost overrun and a delayed first delivery date, Sakhalin Energy has sold virtually all its production capacity and is looking to expand. Its infrastructure would allow four LNG production trains instead of the current two.

"Whilst clearly the company must focus on delivering the first two trains of this massive project, you don't sit and wait until that's completely finished before you start thinking about more than that," Finlayson said.

Aside from Sakhalin, Shell is also looking for oil production opportunities, possibly expanding its west Siberian oil production joint venture, Salym Petroleum Development.

"We certainly have an aspiration to grow that position in west Siberia. Our preferred route is. . . new field development rather than the purchase of mature assets. So we're on the look-out for more." Salym, which is set to be producing around 165,000 barrels of oil per day by the end of the decade, is jointly owned by London-listed Sibir Energy, but Finlayson said Shell had no plans to buy out its joint venture partner.
Much of Russia's oil production growth in the last 15 years has come from using technology to eke more out of existing fields, but Finlayson said that trend would soon have to end.

"There are lots of undeveloped resources in Russia and the time is rapidly coming when attention will have to be paid to changing that exploration acreage into new development.

"That's where we're focusing at the moment," he said.

Shell was looking at the "whole periphery", including new areas of west Siberia, the undeveloped but remote fields of east Siberia and the Arctic, where changes in the sea ice were making the coast much more accessible and a likely home for another LNG terminal in the future, he said.

"We are keen on growing new positions over the short to medium term and starting to develop a third major platform in Russia. There are a number of things being looked at," he said.

"We are strong in LNG and LNG would be a good place, but we also have to see what else is possible."

An aquasition is on the cards by Shell although don't know any more details. A project with a Codename had been set up in the same way as that when Shell bought Enterprise.

More good info LB!! Thanks.

Meanwhile: a bit of a Bounce late morning/midday, up 4 on the day. Nice to see some blue after all this red! Hope it stays this way, although I'm a bit bothered that buyers of those 20 million shares that were recently placed at 400p might rush to sell for some early profit-taking in a couple of days when the stock is admitted for trading.

BTW I notice VOG is experiencing a similar bounce; meanwhile NOP, which has been rising like crazy the last few months, has dropped 4.

And later the same day: up 6.5p on the day.

RNS announces receipt of last tranche of cash, $202,316,747 for shares placed with Orton/Bennfield, bringing the total received to $620,358,052, or 235.25 million. Approx another 80 million are due to be confirmed on Monday 20th March from the 20 million open placing shares, giving SBE a cash pot of 315 million.

Production is also up to 26,000 bbl/day (13,000/day net to Sibir).

The RNS states:

Commenting on the announcement, Sibir CEO, Henry Cameron, said, 'This is a very
important development for Sibir as the company celebrates its tenth year of
activity. The funds received as a result of the subscription for these shares,
together with and the non pre-emptive share placing of 20,000,000 shares,
details of which will be announced on the 20th of March, will eliminate all
company borrowings and will provide the necessary cash to fund Sibir's remaining
commitments at the Salym project where production has increased in the space of
two and a half months to over 26,000 barrels a day and growing. Every bit as
important as the cash injection is the strengthening of the ultimate shareholder
profile. Much of Sibir's recent success is attributable to the dynamic role
played by its key Russian shareholder and the events announced today broaden the
scope of influence which the Russian shareholder brings to the company. This
behind us, we are able to concentrate our efforts on the recovery of our share
of Sibneft Yugra and get on with our announced plans to expand our production
and reserves in new projects.'

RNS today:

Sibir Energy PLC - Moscow Refinery Update
RNS Number:0030ASibir Energy PLC17 March 200617 March 2006 Sibir Energy plc ('Sibir')
Moscow Refinery Wins Court Case
Sibir announces that the Federal Arbitration Court today issued a final rulingin favour of the Moscow Oil Refinery ('MOR') striking down claims of Joy LudInternational Distributors ('Joy Lud') to enforce payment of $28 million inpunitive damages levied by the Stockholm Arbitration court against MOR.In 2004 Joy Lud filed suit for $300 million against MOR in the StockholmArbitration Court for losses and penalties claimed in connection with oilproduct supply agreements it had with MOR in the mid-1990s. The Stockholm Courtrejected the claims for losses and upheld a judgement against MOR in the amountof $28 million for penalties in connection with these dealings. In its decisiontoday, the Federal Arbitration Court upheld a December 8, 2005 decision rulingthat there was no legal basis under Russian law for upholding the Stockholmjudgement.Commenting on the ruling Sibir CEO, Henry Cameron, said, 'Sibir welcomes theoutcome of today's court decision and we are pleased that, under the managementof Moscow Oil and Gas Company, MOR has successfully defended itself againstthese erroneous claims.'

RNS out today:

>> Sibir Energy in placing of up to 20 mln shs through bookbuilding at 392p/shr
LONDON (AFX) - Sibir Energy PLC said it is launching a bookbuilt cash placing
of up to 20 mln new ordinary shares to shareholders at 392 pence each, as
approved at the company's EGM on Jan 27.

Demand for the placing will be determined through a bookbuilding process and it
is expected that the books will close no later than 4.30 pm today. <<


SP likely to drop later this week as the institutions lock in some instant profits ?? There is no lock-in period; placing shares will be admitted for trading on 23rd March.

Up 7p yesterday, up 4p this morning and with a very tight spread at 468/469.75. Is this the end of the recent slide?