Anyone taken a punt on this stock, which floated today?

Proactive investor -


Italy-focused Saffron Energy has gas flow and cash flow, says CEO
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11:21 01 Mar 2017
The shares have made a very decent start to life on AIM. Listed for 5p each, they are currently changing hands for 7.4p, having been as high as 8p.

Hooked up: Saffron taps directly into the gas grid
"We’ve got gas flow and cash flow,” said Michael Masterman, chief executive of Italy-focused Saffron Energy plc (LON:SPRON), shortly after the launch of his latest AIM project.
Masterman, also chairman and co-founder of tungsten, gold and copper play W Resources (LON:WRES), will be popular with those who invested in Friday’s IPO.
For the stock, placed with shareholders at 5p, is currently changing hands for 7.4p and has been as high as 8p.
The company raised £2.5mln from the process, which will fund its growth from one to three wells with output expanding from 1.5mln standard cubic feet of gas a day to 4mln in 36 months.
Saffron is as close as you’re every likely get to an oven-ready investment in oil and gas sector.
 
It already has a producing gas well in the form of Sillaro, near Bologna.
The second, Bezzecca, near Milan, is set to come on line towards the end of next month, while the trio will be complete when Sant’Alberto is completed towards the end of the 2017.
Most of the IPO cash will be used to develop Sant’Alberto and to repay the bridge finance for Bezzecca.
“We have pre-funded Bezzecca through the support of our non-executive directors,” said Masterman. 
“Sant’Alberto is the primary use of the capital.”
Now, Sillaro, Bezzecca and Sant’Alberto aren’t frontier developments in the back of beyond where access to the market and infrastructure is limited and costly.
Their wells tap directly into the local grid, while the gas plants are “fully automated and very cheap to run”, says Masterman.
It means the company makes a very decent margin at the prevailing rate at 21-22 euro cents per cubic metre, up from 14 cents at the start of last year.
And that’s the point - prices in Italy are healthy. This isn’t like producing gas in the US where you almost have to give it away.
Saffron’s deal with Shell Trading allows Saffron to lock in a price if it so wishes.
Those who have followed the story know the company is a spin-out from the Aussie-listed, Italy-focused explorer and developer Po Valley, which is chaired by Masterman.
The plan to list assets here in the UK was borne of the recognition that the ASX probably wasn’t the best place to showcase their potential.
“There was limited liquidity and to some extent Po Valley was orphaned; certainly the market capitalisation didn’t reflect the quality of what we owned,” said Masterman.
“[Saffron] has clearly demonstrated if you get these assets capitalised you can then focus on what can be done in a timely way.”
Via the UK equity market, the three projects will receive the capital injection they require.
Not that the new investors have been short-changed. The fields are estimated to host 8.7bn cubic feet of gas, while the newly-listed company also owns seven kilometres of pipeline and two gas plants.
“We have a strong and fundamentally attractive set of assets,” said the Saffron boss.
Turning to production, the schedule sees output peaking in 2019. 
But as Masterman pointed out: “We have a management team that in a three-year time horizon will add additional production, so it will keep going up rather than down due to the natural decline curve.”
Research by Turner Pope Investments, penned by industry veteran Barney Gray, sees Saffron generating revenues of €3.62mln this year, rising to €6.09mln and then €8.93mln.
By 2019 the cash flow before tax should be in the order of €6.84mln, analyst Gray reckons.
In other words there is significant cash flow to go with the three-well gas flow.

Thanks Bullshare, jumped in today.

All coming up as sells, when blue buys.

I've seen that when i've bought stock , it seems that when the buy price is so near sell price it's taken as a sell. Shouldn't affect things though .

Cheers VICTIM

It seemed to put the run of blue on hold. :-))

a good day today, off its high before close but still a 10% gain

Thanks again. :-)) Moves fast.

The S. Maddalena gas field (S. Alberto licence) is located very near the Sillaro field.
This concession application received environmental clearance and the Company is awaiting the finalization of the production concession license. The field will require a simple development including a small modular plant to treat the gas and a short pipeline (200 metres) to connect the plant to the national grid. First gas is expected in the 2017 European summer.


The Bezzecca gas field is an approved production field ready to bring into production.
Its first well, Bezzecca 1 is located 7 km from the existing Vitalba gas production plant and is ready for to be connected through a newly constructed tie-in pipeline. All approvals and agreements with land owners for the pipeline are in place and a head contract for construction has been signed. The cost of the pipeline is expected to be EUR2.2m and contracts for construction have been signed.  Construction commenced in mid-September and, subject to weather conditions, is expected to be completed over a twenty-week period.  After a short commissioning period production will commence.
Development approval has also been granted for a second production well (Bezzecca 2) and plans to drill and complete this well will commence in 2017 once the Bezzecca 1 well has been brought into production. Gas from Bezzecca 2 will also be processed from the Vitalba processing plant which has sufficient capacity for both the Bezzecca 1 and 2 wells.


The Sillaro field is located in the province of Bologna and was originally explored by ENI between 1955 and 1982 with seven wells drilled in and around the structure.
The field contains gas bearing zones in the Pliocene level at a depth of 2,100 metres. The deeper Miocene level, at a depth of 2,500 metres, was previously drilled by ENI and found to have a gas bearing reservoir.
In July 2009, drilled it was drilled a second well (Sillaro-2dir) intersecting the Pliocene gas reservoirs designed to produce from multiple levels and to increase overall flow rates and optimise total field recovery.
Since production commenced in 2010, Sillaro has proved a strong revenue and cash flow generator, generating over EUR 30 million in revenue and EUR 23 million in operating cashflow.
The Sillaro gas production field is currently producing at limited rates from one of its two historic production wells.  The field still has unproduced gas from its Pliocene reserves and also from the deeper Myocene levels. The plan for this field is to secure a farm-in partner to drill a side track well from the existing production area to access the deeper Miocene reserves and Pliocene levels which have been identified but are not currently completed.

The percentage of the Company’s issued share capital that is not in public hands is 65.70%.
There are no Ordinary Shares held in treasury and therefore the number of Ordinary Shares with voting rights is 153,720,000
The securities of the Company are solely traded on the AIM market operated by London Stock Exchange Plc. Its shares have not been admitted, nor have any applications been made, for any of its shares to be admitted or traded on any other exchanges or trading platform.


Significant shareholders
Shareholder
Shares issued
% ownership
Po Valley Energy Limited
100,000,000
65.05%

Australia’s Po Valley Energy Ltd (ASX: PVE), which has oil & gas exploration, development and production interests in northern Italy, has announced an updated timetable for the spin-out of its subsidiary, Saffron Energy Plc (Saffron Energy) and anticipated listing later this month on London’s AIM market around 24 February.
The listing of Saffron, which will own one gas production (Sillaro) and two near-term gas production fields (Bezzecca (90%) and Sant’Alberto) near Milan and Bologna previously owned by PVE, includes a A$4 million IPO capital raising to primarily fund accelerated development of all three gas field assets.


Company Profile
Po Valley Energy Limited (PVE) is an emerging Oil&Gas exploration and development Company with an expanding portfolio of hydrocarbon assets in northern Italy.
 
The Company owns and operates two gas treatment plants, with more gas and oil developments to come.

Po Valley was the first E&P Company to bring new production to the Po Valley region since the end of the ENI-Agip monopoly and the liberalisation of the Italian gas market in 1998.
 
The Company, listed on the Australian Stock Exchange on 14 December 2004 and through its subsidiaries Northsun Italia S.p.A and Po Valley Operations Pty Ltd, holds 12 licence areas, encompassing 2,000 sq kilometers (494,200 acres).
 
Having operated in Italy for the past 10 years, the Company is experienced in Italy's regulatory process and has successfully managed each stage of the exploration and production business.
The Company's presence in Italy and local management team represents significant competitive advantage not enjoyed by newer entrants seeking to find success in the Italian market.
 
Po Valley has continued to grow its portfolio of assets at a very low cost relative to other oil and gas companies, providing the basis for future shareholder value creation. Italy remains an attractive market with gas and oil being of high quality, an accessible and low cost transportation network and a pricing environment that has been stable and higher than other comparable European countries.
 
Strategically, therefore, the Company is well positioned for accelerating and sustaining growth.

Answers my question - Why the aim market and not the ASX market?


we have a huge investment base to drive this company forward

I watched this , went for me cuppa and they bang it up 10% . These cuppa's cost me .

Did you buy any ?

No dream , there's tremendous buying going on here though .

I personally think they were too cheap.

Extension offtake agreement with Shell
RNS
RNS Number : 3433Z
Saffron Energy PLC
14 March 2017
 
 
 
14 March 2017
Saffron Energy plc
("Saffron Energy", the "Company" or, together with its subsidiaries, the "Group")
 
Northsun Italia S.p.A. ("Northsun") - subsidiary of Saffron Energy - extends offtake agreement with Shell Energy Italia
 
 
Natural gas developer and producer Saffron Energy (AIM:SRON) announces the extension of the natural gas offtake contract between its Italian subsidiary Northsun and  Shell Energy Italia S.r.l. ("Shell Energy Italia")- a subsidiary of Shell- for energy commodity trading and marketing.
 
The contract has been extended to 1 October 2018, with an option to extend for a further year to 1 October 2019, and provides for offtake of gas supply for all of the Group's Italian gas fields.
Gas produced from the Company's fields is transported directly into the Italian national grid, which is owned and operated by SNAM Rete Gas S.p.A.
 
Michael Masterman, CEO of Saffron Energy, commented:  "The contract signed with Shell Energy Italia is a key element for our business, as we continue to have a buyer in line for the gas produced from our future assets, a benefit for the Company's cash flow.
Northsun Italia S.p.A., the Group's wholly-owned Italian subsidiary, has been supplying Shell Energy Italia with natural gas for a period of 4 years, with a contractual formula that allows the Company to mitigate the market risks. The Italian market is considered a premium pricing market compared with other international markets, with the spot price now trading at around EUR 19.44 cent per cubic metre.
The Italian gas market is robust and attractive due to the high-quality gas produced, an accessible low-cost transportation network, paired together with a pricing environment that has been stable and higher than other comparable European countries: spot gas prices have risen significantly over the last 12 months from €14 cent per cubic metrer to around € 20 cent per cubic metre.
Selling our gas on the Italian gas market allows us to take advantage of the premium prices of this market. Shell's networks supply gas throughout Italy."
 
Michele Petz, Country Lead & Commercial Manager of Shell Energy Italia, said: "This extended agreement confirms the leading role of Shell Energy Italia as off-taker for independent gas producers in the Italian market."
 
According to the SNAM Rete Gas ten-year network development plan 2015-2024, Italy consumed 2.2 tcf in gas in 2014, which is expected to grow at 2.1% per annum until 2024. Of this, only 231 bcf (0.2 tcf), or 11%, was produced domestically, with the remaining 2.0 tcf imported from countries in the Mediterranean area.

BMD Target 12p-15p.