Nautical Petroleum plc is an independent hydrocarbon exploration and development company listed on the London AIM. The company's mission is to acquire, develop and add value to discovered heavy oil, initially on the United Kingdom Continental Shelf.

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Hardman & Co. Research note

For Immediate Release
9 September 2008

Nautical Petroleum plc

('Nautical' or 'the Company')

Mariner 3D and OBC seismic surveys completion

Nautical Petroleum (AIM:NPE), the independent exploration and development company focused on heavy oil assets in the UK and Europe, announces that a 3-D seismic survey and ocean bottom cable (OBC) survey have been acquired over the Mariner and East Mariner discoveries and the surrounding blocks.

These seismic surveys are designed to better define the distribution of the shallow Heimdal Sandstone. This reservoir has been penetrated by 16 wells and has flowed up to 1840 bopd on drill stem test. Statoil UK Limited, the new operator of Mariner and East Mariner has successfully utilised these methods to map and characterise the Heimdal Reservoir in the Grane Field, Norway (which currently produces ca 200,000 bopd of heavy oil). The acquisitions represents the first major operational activity over the Mariner area since the Extended Well test in 1997 (which produced 663,000 barrels of oil at an average of 10,000 bopd from the Maureen Sandstone reservoir) and represents a significant step forward towards the planned submission of the field development plan in mid 2010.

PGS acquired 115 sq kms of full coverage 3D seismic with the survey extending over blocks 9/11a (Mariner) and 9/11b + 9/12c (Mariner East), and partly into block 9/11c (Nautical Operated). The survey was completed on 29th June 2008.

An OBC survey was completed by Western Geco on 12th August 2008. A 12x6 km cable layout was deployed on the sea bed and 630 kms sail lines acquired.

The data is currently being processed and results are expected toward the end of the year.

Commenting Steve Jenkins Chief Executive Officer of Nautical said:
'Mariner continues to be a corner stone asset of Nautical and has participated closely in all the technical and operating committees of the joint venture. We are delighted that, under the leadership of the new operator, StatoilHydro, the seismic surveys have been acquired. We believe that this will make a significant step towards the formulation of the field development plan and the achievement of commercial production'

Header sorted, sorry I had not noticed the omission till now.

Anyone have a view on the potential impact of the proposed share consolidation?

pb - too early to be sure, but

16/09 Senergy R/M Byford Dolphin 20/09

http://www.fearnleyoffshoresupply.com/templates/SpotList/RecentFixtures.aspx?id=53

Thanks oilwatch

pb - I've been abroad. The rig move above wasn't for NPE, but we should be next on the list late this month. Meanwhile, the Kraken appraisal well spudded on 22/09 using Sedco 704 seems to be complete:

ODIN VIKING

http://www.vikingsupply.com/chartering_positions.asp

Maybe the location was too ambitious, but the objective was to locate the oil/water contact, so, hopefully, not another setback.

CONsolidation:-1:20 (25 Sept08- DYOR).
I see a sp spike and Ann about 25Sept08 . . . can someone confirm the sp prior to CONsolidation...looks like 5p - but I should have thought the prices should have remained the "same" since there are fewer shares afterwqards...etc.
-(ie the earlyier-graph needs conversion to account for the share density)-
-Anyone...?

Yes, they were around 5 pence.

The market has been less convinced about NPE's heavy oil the cheaper WTI has become imv.

A turnaround in oil would change that opinion.

There has been some chat elsewhere about the possibility of mothballing as NPE are well funded but in that I could not comment.

No news for some time have they hibernated for the winter?

The Mariner and Bressay fields are heavy heavy oil propects. Probably the heaviest grades in the north sea, Bressay being the heavier of the 2. The company i work for sold its interest to StatoilHydro. To give you an idea of how heavy the oil, either field would be discounted to Brent probably more than =>15 dollars. Also the added problem would be market the oil. The oil is that thick its going to cost a lot of money to get it out of the ground. Bressay is like tar. For those projects to work the price of oil would have to be at the very least 80 dollars imho. If prices did rise then i would expect the discount to brent to widen even further on sales. I dont know Nautical too well but isnt most of their portfolio based on heavy grades? If thats the case then there wont be much activity with regards to development.

apart from other negative issues with heavy oil, am i correct in thinking that it is also very high in sulphur and thus much more expensive to refine? ..... or is the one incidental the othe other?

Yes you are correct but the Fawley refinery at Southampton is one of the best in Europe at refining this Oil.

Just to counter the misleading posts above:

http://otcnet.org/2006/tech_prog/sched/documents/otc182341.pdf

All gone quiet here. 2010 apart from a possible drill at Keddington then? Thinking of getting some Aminex for their Jan gig with tlw if they can farm it.

Hello oily

I have been away on hols, come back and trying to get back into this again.

Very interested in a couple I see you on, SOLO and BPC, early doors and all that plus BPC has a fantastic portfolio.

Talking of heavy crude....discovered light crude....it's like looking for silver and coming up with gold....

Incredible rise.....doing better than EO....which is strange...anybody in this ?...