< "> edit this post http://www.investegate.co.uk/afren-plc-%28afr%29/rns/trading-statement-and-operations-update/201301210700069619
http://www.investegate.co.uk/afren-plc--afr-/rns/2012-full-year-results/201303250700107200A/

In an attempt to cut down the header page,i've transferred some of the older news to Page1 post No.3.

http://www.oil-price.net/index.php?lang=en
http://www.ft.com/home/uk

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201111020700081674R
http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201111150700250723S
http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201112010705051251T
http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201201170700146472V
http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201201230701479690V
http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=4323758
http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201204170700164488B
http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201205140700212304D
http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201205210700407032D
http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=4430164
http://www.investegate.co.uk/afren-plc-%28afr%29/rns/significant-new-seychelles-3d-seismic-programme/201212120700052973T/
http://www.investegate.co.uk/afren-plc--afr-/rns/2013-half-yearly-results/201308230700063334M/
http://www.investegate.co.uk/afren-plc--afr-/rns/ogo-drilling-and-resources-update/201311190700083404T/
http://www.investegate.co.uk/afren-plc--afr-/rns/trading-statement-and-operations-update/201401280700096280Y/
http://www.investegate.co.uk/afren-plc--afr-/rns/interim-management-statement/201405200700135209H/
http://www.investegate.co.uk/afren-plc--afr-/rns/interim-management-statement/201410300700116483V/
http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=4942625
http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=4943375

http://www.investegate.co.uk/afren-plc--afr-/rns/2013-half-yearly-results/201308230700063334M/


Key Highlights
· Strong operating cash flow driven by a 13 per cent. year-on-year increase in net production to 47,653 boepd; on track for full year guidance of 40,000 - 47,000 boepd

· Continued E&A success

- Play opening discovery at OPL 310, offshore Nigeria

- DST programme at Simrit-2 on the Ain Sifni PSC, Kurdistan region of Iraq complete, with aggregate flow rates of 19,641 bopd achieved. Well being prepared for Extended Well Test operations

- Completion of drilling at Simrit-3. Multi-zone testing programme underway to confirm the resource potential and the eastern extent of the Simrit anticline

- Active exploration programme with ongoing Ogo-1 sidetrack and upcoming Ufon-1 well on OML 115 in Nigeria

· Active portfolio management

- Completion of farm-out (subject to Nigerian Ministerial Consent) of a 30 per cent. economic interest in OPL 310, offshore Nigeria, to Lekoil Limited

- Acquisition by FHN of 16.9 per cent. economic interest in OML 113. Synergies expected with OPL 310 development

- Agreement for sale of CI-11 block and Lion Gas Plant for total consideration of US$26.5 million, of which US$15.3 million will be settled in cash

- Proposed relinquishment of JDZ Block 1, Nigeria São Tomé & Príncipe

· Strong balance sheet and financial flexibility

- Cash at bank US$588 million (1H 2012: US$497 million); Net debt, excluding finance leases US$590 million (1H 2012: US$679 million). Full year capex guidance revised to US$650 million from US$620 million

Commenting today, Osman Shahenshah, Chief Executive of Afren plc, said:
"Afren continued to deliver strong operational results during the first half of 2013. We recorded a year-on-year increase in underlying net production of 13 per cent. principally from our green field developments offshore Nigeria. Our exploration campaign continues to deliver results, following the play opening discovery announced at OPL 310 offshore Nigeria, where further exploration drilling is ongoing. Elsewhere, we are continuing with exploration drilling and testing operations at the Ain Sifni PSC in Kurdistan. With high quality production underpinning both our strong financial position and exploration programme, we are well placed to realise numerous growth opportunities over the remainder of this year."

i thought AFR's figures were actually on the better side of OK, and that the fall in the sp this morning has more to do with "selling on the news" than anything else ..... thus, if i felt my holding was still a bit light, i would not be averse to topping up at this level

Cynic,

At the right price you can buy some of mine.

Not one of my cleverest buys.

AFR's figures weren't as good as hoped, I think, hence the fall:

"StockMarketWire.com

Afren posts pre-tax profits of $260m for the six months to the end of June - 16% down on last year's restated $311m.

Revenues were up 2% at $797m but gross profits fell by 8% to $377m."

Still holding. Profits down due to extra tax and company tidying up their portfolio. Management to buy in and then Kurdistan news expected this year. Tanzania next. Plus Nigeria production and exploration as the money maker. Brokers retaining their buy stance.
LTH

i have several lumps of AFR, and i see all are in profit except one that i bought in january which shows a small loss, so overall very happy even if this is no rocket (yet)

Canaccord Genuity, recommended a ‘buy’ rating for Afren after the oil explorer reported first half results ahead of the broker's expectations.
The analyst said production was 2% ahead of estimates, revenue was 5% higher and cashflow was in line.

typical brokers report
Canaccord Genuity cuts target price to 190p from 220p; rating buy

pretty boring atm no div what's in it for shareholders?

capital growth, which i'ld much rather have than divi .... and before you come back at me, my average price is 127 and my earliest tranche was bought in may '12 and last in july '13, so a very respectable return

Sorry wrong thread, cannot think why I put it here. :-))

cynic how much you have paid for your shares is rather irrelevant to investors, capital growth can only be achieved when AFR shares profits with its owners (shareholders), otherwise there is the suspicion that this company is being run for the benefit of its directors and management.

no one is compelling you or your buddies to buy ..... if one of your key criteria is yield, then that is fine, but it's not mine ..... as far as i am concerned, i am more than happy with my choice ..... i am comfortably in profit; sp continues to chug slowly north; there is a possibility verging on probability that AFR will be bought out within an arbitrary 2/3 years

Afren (LON:AFR)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating restated by Morgan Stanley in a research note issued on Friday,AnalystRatings.Net reports. They currently have a GBX 210 ($3.28) price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 43.93% from the stock’s previous close.

Shares of Afren (LON:AFR) opened at 141.50 on Friday. Afren has a 52-week low of GBX 118.20 and a 52-week high of GBX 162.00. The stock’s 50-day moving average is GBX 45.44 and its 200-day moving average is GBX 73.13. The company’s market cap is £1.540 billion.

A number of other firms have also recently commented on AFR. Analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “underweight” rating on shares of Afren in a research note to investors on Wednesday. Separately, analysts at RBC Capital reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Afren in a research note to investors on Friday, August 16th. They now have a GBX 180 ($2.82) price target on the stock. Finally, analysts at Westhouse Securities reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Afren in a research note to investors on Wednesday, August 14th. They now have a GBX 160 ($2.50) price target on the stock.


Afren plc (LON:AFR) is engaged in oil and gas exploration, development and production in Africa and the Kurdistan region of Iraq.One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. The stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of GBX 181.52 ($2.84).

Nice recovery from an initial disappointing reaction to the News...at one point Affers was down 5% - closed down marginally.I guess many were expecting Well news, of which there was little. High tax rate impinging on profits but all eyes on imminent well results.

Have a good bank holiday weekend all.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/sharewatch/market-report-investors-ditch-afren-over-lion-sale-8783157.html

Market Report: Investors ditch Afren over Lion sale

The price that African oil explorer Afren got for its Lion Gas plant failed to keep investors happy and they headed for the exit yesterday.

The mid-cap index-listed oil specialist sold off its Ivory Coast CI-11 block and Lion Gas plant for $26.5m (£17m), but analysts said the City was left disgruntled at the price.

Stephane Foucaud, an analyst at FirstEnergy, said the price was “a fraction of what it was purchased for in late 2008 and what the carry value was at $220m.

“It is almost $200m less than what we were expecting and we are usually on the low side of the consensus. For a £1.6bn market cap, this is quite material”.

Afren did report good production numbers but also revealed a 16 per cent fall in its first-half pre-tax profits to $260m (£167m).

The City reacted by flogging the company’s shares and they were the second-worst faller on the mid-tier table during the afternoon session.

However, they recovered some of their fall and closed the day down just 0.3p to 145.6p.

It seems that heavy taxation by the Nigerians is also having a negative effect,also any news being sparingly shared prompting comments it's to do with the following??
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----London, Friday 5th July 2013 - Afren plc ("Afren" or the "Company") announces that following the sale of all Afren PDMR holdings in First Hydrocarbon Nigeria ("FHN") to CSL Stockbrokers in Nigeria, they have undertaken to use the net proceeds to acquire Afren shares in the public markets.



The Afren Chairman and Executive Directors, together with certain other Afren PDMRs, have today entered into Sale and Purchase Agreements with CSL Stockbrokers for the sale of 11,819,085 shares in FHN (approximately 10 per cent. of the issued share capital of FHN) at a price of US$2.47 per share. Net proceeds will be used to acquire Afren shares in the public markets, following the expiry of the current H1 2013 close period, and undertake to hold the shares for a minimum of two years.

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From Investors Chronicle
By Matthew Allan,
27 August 2013
Oil production hike lifts Afren TIP UPDATE


Success with both the drill bit and the pump jack has helped Afren' s (AFR) share price climb near a two-year high - but we think there's more to come for the Africa-focused oil producer in the second half of the year and reiterate our buy advice.

From Mr Poshman on another bulletin board regards his views on Afren production

Nigeria prodution will be impacted by Ebok cost recovery which Osman stated close to the end of the Q&A will be achieved in early 2014. Now I'm sure this may be impacted by the expansion of the CFB toward the end of this year and therefore continual drilling, but my opinion is that Oriental will pay their way as they did with the NFB exploration well, so I expect Ebok to impact production downwards and why I think Osman decided against making any production indications for next year.

This will be partially offset by new wells linked to the CFB, I don't think this will be enough to offset the drop, but would like to know if they are starting to drill these wells prior to receipt of the extension, unfortunately no-one asked this question, just that this will be delivered towards the end of the year (October / November).

I think OML26 will show an uptick going into next year, rig apparantly coming over from a nearby block towards the end of the year also, I think it was stated October / November too. I assume that these wells will be fairly shallow and therefore quick, so I think these could start ramping up production but I doubt much above 10k bopd by the end of Q1 which would be somewhere around 4k bopd to Afren so essentially offsetting the loss of production from CIV.

I think Galib Virani stated that production from Okwok won't be completed until end 2015, so a bit of a longer timeframe to what we got at Okoro and Ebok.

Several of these developments all depend on the Nigerian govt actually working quickly and approving FDP's as we know that Okwok is being worked up, and the FEED is being worked up on Okoro, we probably won't get approval until Q2 2014 IMO so I can see why they are giving timescales for Okwok by end 2015.

Production will still be impacted by Okoro and Ebok, if they can ramp up Ebok production towards around 50k bopd by end Q1 then the impact on production in 2014 may not be impacted as much, as OML26 may replace some of this, but IMO excluding Barda Rash production (for the timebeing) I expect to see a reduction in NET production in 2014 due to cost recovery at Ebok, but I think GROSS production will be up, so I suspect between this reason (and Osman knows as much as anyone, that a poorly worded explanation would hit the share price) and the completion of the pipeline in Kurdistan and how localised sales go for the rest of this year, I think this is why Osman chose not to provide any production guidance for next year.

Hopefully, Barda Rash will produce enough to offset declines in Nigeria but we shall see.

Whats great about Afren is the pipeline of projects is excellent and this is what gives Afren such an advantage. Most of the pipeline of appraisal / development assets are in current Oil and Gas hubs so compared to someone like Tullow who have some very high risk assets that they are looking at developing and have huge value in their share price (IMO) and high amounts of capital tied up (Uganda particularly but also including Kenya and Namibia) I think Afrens appraisal / development assets (bar Kurdistan) are relatively low risk, particularly on the politial risk side.

I liked how they described OML26, this was a big issue for me, and I did expect them to provide some commentary around the upside here due to the additional investment Afren have put up in FHN, as they explained that this was similar to the Ebok field when they bought that and if you remember Ebok originally had guidance of around 25mbo which has been smashed. I think they were indicating that they see similar upside in OML26 with the exploration side. Femi deliberately stated that exploration was last performed on this clock back in the 60's so around 50 years ago with obviously much weaker technology than what exists now, so I hope to see big increases around this over the next few years too.

I like how they have been moving, a slow burner IMO, but a very strong share especially at this market cap

Afren, a U.K.-based oil and gas company focused on West Africa and Iraq, will increase output in Kurdistan once a pipeline export route to Turkey is completed by the end of this year.

“The pipeline is a positive step and we’ve agreed a tie-in,” Chief Executive Officer Osman Shahenshah said in a telephone interview. “The plan is to increase production substantially.”

Afren is selling 2,500 barrels of crude a day into the domestic market on trucks in the semi-autonomous northern Iraqi region, Shahenshah said. It maintained its guidance for full-year production for the whole company at 40,000 to 47,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day.

http://www.gulan-media.com/english/t_detail.php?section=1&id=43