Asset Summary:

Oman Block 31 (50% Indago, 50% RAK Petroleum)
Jebel Hafit: estimated at 1 billion boe. Al-Jariyal-1 presently being drilled - originally due to complete in 160 days (9 July). Drill problems and raised costs announced 11 July. 21 Sept announced that drilling had reached 3600m (target depth 5900m) and was expected to penetrate the objective reservoirs towards the end of Q4 2007. Drilling problems and delays to cost additional $2M. 2D seismic results "encouraging". 28 Dec announced that drilling progressing slower than expected and costs increased to $25M for Indago alone. Now expected to hit target depth in Feb and test by end of April 2008. 4 Feb - Announced that well had reached 5131m, then encountered high-pressure, high-temperature salt water, disabling drill string. Assessing damage.

Oman Block 47 (50% Indago, 50% RAK Petroleum)
Hawamel-1: Estimated 61 million boe. Gas shows during drilling. Currently suspended pending horizontal wellbore testing (unlikely that standard testing procedures would achieve a commercial flowrate). New 2D seismic results "encouraging". Zad - 1 on the Adam prospect will be drilled after Al-Jariya with same rig. Evaluating seismic with a view to refining the prospect inventory.

Oman Block 43a (50% Indago, 50% RAK Petroleum)
Evaluating seismic with a view to refining the prospect inventory.

Cash
$54 million at 30 June 2007

After sale of many assets to RAK Petroleum, Indago is now an exploration company.


Click to enlarge work programme


Useful Links:
Indago Portfolio Overview
Sep 06 : Investor Presentation
Sep 06 : Interview with Peter Sadler, CEO of Indago Petroleum
27 Sep 06 : Interim Results RNS
8 Nov 06 : West Bukha-2 secondary target success RNS
21 Nov 06 : West Bukha-2 primary target success RNS
5 Jan 07 : Conclusion of West Bukha testing, Hawamel-1a exploration
10 Jan 07 : Oil Barrel Article - Indago Petroleum Enjoys Further Success On Block 8 Offshore The Sultanate Of Oman In The Middle East
Feb 07 : Al-Jariyal-1 spudded and "encouraging" seismic progress
13 Feb 07 : Oil Barrel Article - Indago Petroleum Goes For A High Impact Exploration Well Onshore The Sultanate Of Oman
Mar 07 : West Bukha info from Heritage Oil
7 Mar 07 : Potential Transaction RNS
11 Mar 07 : Oil Barrel - Little Fish In A Big Pond: AIM Juniors Finding Their Feet In The Middle East
14 Mar 07 : RNS - Disposal Of Assets (special dividend, share consolidation)
15 Mar 07 : Indago Presentation On RAK Petroleum Deal
1 May 07 : RNS - Indago response to rapid share price movement, plus drilling progress update
11 July 07 : RNS - Drill problems, $8.2 million cost increase and delays to reach target depth
21 Sept 07 : RNS - Interim Results
28 Dec 07 : RNS - Slow Progress And Increased Costs At Jebel Hafit
4 Feb 08 : RNS - Jebel Hafit update - Salt water encountered, drill string stuck

It sailed past the 70/75p support level, so next support is at 50p.
With news still a few weeks away & the markets still falling I think there is still further downside for the IPL sp. But, as you say, the sp should blip up just on the approach of news.
High risk! Yes, for sure, but that's the buzz!!!

http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidDN20070719004025/SecProjects/pagNews/chnProjects%20News/objB5CA3253-195D-437A-832DF68D2587A1D7/


Thursday, Jul 19, 2007

By Ayesha Daya

Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

DUBAI (Dow Jones)--RAK PetroleumRAK Petroleum, an oil and gas exploration and production company based in the U.A.E. emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, is to review the company's strategy towards the end of the year, the company's new chief executive said.

Appointed a month ago to replace Philip Turberville, Peter Sadler, who previously ran the company's exploration and production arm, told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview that he will meet the board in the next quarter to define future direction and targets.

"In the next quarter I will meet with the board to review our strategy, including our output target," Sadler said in a phone interview. "We will see if we need to continue as we are, or if we change tack."

For the rest of 2007, the company will continue to focus on its core area, exploration in its Omani and Ras Al Khaimah acreage.

"This year we've been quite active operationally," he said.

Current net output is 2,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, Sadler said.

Owned by a number of local investors, including the Ras Al Khaimah government, RAKRAK is one of several companies established in the Gulf in recent years keen to enter the international oil and gas arena.

Sadler used to head Indago PetroleumIndago Petroleum (IPL.LN), the London Alternative Investment Market-listed energy firm. He moved to RAKRAK in April when it acquired all of Indago's exploration and production assets for GBP194.2 million.

RAKRAK continues to share exploration assets in Oman with Indago, including Block 31, Jebel Hafit, a 104-square-kilometer mountain area estimated to hold 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent on the Omani side. The other side of the mountain is in Abu Dhabi, which hasn't been drilled.

Indago recently announced that drilling in the Jebel Hafit well would cost a further $8.2 million owing to problems with drilling in a high pressure environment.

"The cost has been $21 million to date. It is going to cost some $40 million by the time we have finished," Sadler said.

Results, previously expected in June, will now be known by the end of September.

For the past two weeks, operations have been shut down to prepare for the next phase of drilling, which will commence later Thursday or Friday, Sadler said.

"It will take 40 to 50 days to get into the reservoir, and a further 30 to 40 days once inside it to evaluate reserves," Sadler said. "By the end of the third quarter, we should have an idea."

After Jebel Hafit, the company is targeting the Zad-1 wildcat in Block 47 in Oman.

West Bukha, an oil prospect offshore Oman, is scheduled to produce between 10,000 to 15,000 barrels a day of oil from May 2008, Sadler said.

New acquisitions of assets and companies in the Middle East and North Africa are always on the cards for RAKRAK, Sadler said. "Our strategy is to acquire to expand in gas and oil," he said. "The MENA region is an area where we think we can work."

The company's offer in April for Algeria-focused Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd. (GKP.LN) failed to materialize.

"Gulf Keystone was a $400 million bid. That money is no longer committed, but there is no point rushing to get rid of it," he said.

Sadler said that a proposed initial public offering of RAKRAK had "no definite timing."

-By Ayesha Daya, Dow Jones Newswires; +971 4 3644962; ayesha.daya@dowjones.com

Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 19, 2007 05:51 ET (09:51 GMT)

60p is a key level for me for IPL, simply because after the 60p special dividend and then the 5 for 1, there is really no trading history below this level.

The volume says it all imv, no volume, just small PI's getting fidgety, panicky with the markets or getting margin calls and being forced to sell.

A few decent buys coming in, and it will soon start to move back up.

With the potential for a news leak in the coming 2 to 6 weeks (given the new drilling schedule according to RAK), its also the time soon that speculative money will start coming back.




.

Shares in Issue is now : 53,333,311

At 55p mid price the market cap is just 29.33m now.

With around 20m in the bank imv, thats just 9.33m EV for potential of 1500p a share upside.

Its getting very cheap now imv, high risk and big potential reward play.

Whether this is cheap will depend on how much of that 20m is left at present. Too little and more money will be needed to allow development of the other assets once JH completes. For me, there is still no compelling reason to buy at present. I await the next update on JH.

VM, I am taking off expenditure already (which knocks off around 9m) to give a present today value of 20m cash.

On completion of JH-1 they will have enough for Zad-1, and should be enough for the sidetrack on Hawamel-1 too.

JH-1 is the most expensive of the three, followed by Zad-1 and with the final sidetrack at H-1 being the cheapest.

They stated in their last update that the increased costs of JH-1 will not compromise their allocated funding for the next two wells, so all in all, their last statement was that they can complete all three wells with no further funding requirement.

L2 on the up today as some buyers come in, all is blue so far, and now 2 v 1 @55/58

25K MM buy there, which means a larger trade is to be reported later (for which the MM buy helped fill).

Nice to see some movement, now L2 is 1 v 1 @61/65

On Line Limits getting stronger now :

BUY 1.5K at 68.76p

SELL 15K @ 66.2p

A decent day overall, lets hope more of the same today.

Surely that was because of a big buy that went through, as you said.
Only 3000 shares traded today so far & I would expect the sp to drift a little.

Well, some buying interest today.

We should know something by the end of this month latest, as interims are due on or before 30th Sept, so that will be the latest date of any update.

EVO presently on their own on the offer.

For reference.

Its said that EVO (Evolution) are going to stop being MM's across a few smaller oil stocks, and so its no surprise they are on their own on the offer.

Is this becoming the time to start getting interested in IPL again? A Progress Report must be imminent and as far as I could find out a few weeks ago they were finding the going easier - although slower because of the greater depth now reached and the need to sleeve the hole

Interims out today, all appears well, if delayed somewhat. Now expecting to hit target zone late in Q4. Encouraging given that mean potential reserves are worth 1000p should we get to them and they are there :) High risk and massive potential reward.......ideal for gamblers.....like me :)

This little extract from the interims :

"Chairman's report

Introduction

Since I last updated you at the time of our Preliminary results we have made just one operational announcement on progress at the Al Jariya-1 well on the Jebel Hafit prospect, as the Company's primary focus has been this well. At that time, an 11 3/4' liner had been set between 2,000 and 2,600 metres in order to stabilize the well, which was being adversely affected by tectonic movements.
The decision to do so appears to have been vindicated, as progress, although slow, has been steady since then. A consequence of inserting the liner has been the need for a two-stage drilling process, whereby an 8 1/2' pilot hole is
drilled initially, followed by a reaming operation, opening out the hole to 12 1/4'. This maintains the operational capability to set 9 5/8' casing before drilling into the reservoir in 8 1/2' hole. This would ultimately permit a
conventional testing programme to be run in the event that hydrocarbons are encountered. However, this two-stage drilling operation has led, inevitably, to slower progress. The operator has advised a further uplift in cost (Indago share expected to be circa $2 million) since our last announcement. The additional cost has been fully recognised in our forecasts and we are fully funded for our
foreseeable programme.

.

Interesting, it appears you can open up a pilot hole by up to 75% of the initial hole size with todays technology. All about bi-centred drills and underreaming. Interesting subject to read up on if your bored.

Lets estimate they continue at an average of 17m a day.

We should expect them to enter the first (upper) reservoir in late Q4.

They should complete to TD around early Feb 2008, and finish testing in late Feb or early March 2008.

Based on that, I think people should have a fairly good guesstimate of when to expect news and action.

PP think that the current est'd timetable is pessimistic from my contacts. early November seems very possible and may explain the director buys over the last two days.

Would be nice Sharesure, but I will remain with very cautious timelines for now :)



I would say the past few days director buying would mean they are fairly confident they will reach TD now, and so they, like us, feel its worth a little flutter now, given what is massive potential upside on success.

10K punt = possibly 100K back with mean success on JH-1.......or if JH-1 fails then that 10K punt could be worth up to 25K to 30K based on the next two drills.

Not bad odds at all.

Anyway, nice to see them all have a little dabble and buy some shares :)