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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Download Nautical 2007 Annual Report

Hardman & Co. Research note

Hi PP, thanks for that.

Yes - many thanks PP!

Something more :

http://www.oilbarrel.com/news/article.html?body=1&key=oilbarrel_en:1195610260&feed=oilbarrel_en

21.11.2007

Heavy Oil Specialist Nautical Petroleum Has A Notable Success With The Drilling Of The Kraken Prospect in The UK North Sea

London Aim-listed Nautical Petroleum specialises in heavy oil, mostly in the UK North Sea but also in France. Heavy oil has not been popular in the past. It can be difficult and expensive to extract, have low recovery rates and sell at a discount to more conventional light crudes.

Now, with fears that light oil may be going into short supply and with oil prices at record levels, companies have been looking anew at heavy oil. Moreover, Nautical, through its association with fellow Aim member Quadrise Fuels International, says it has access to proprietary technology, which not only makes it easier to extract heavy oil but also can add value by processing so that heavy oil when broken down into various components can sell as fuel oil for power plants at a premium to Brent Crude rather than a discount.

Nautical has accordingly for the past two years been assembling a portfolio of known discoveries and development prospects. It now numbers seven discoveries and development prospects in the UKCS and France amongst its assets as well as some low cost exploration opportunities.

One key asset is the stake in the Mariner field. This is said to hold the record of being the most heavily appraised undeveloped field in the North Sea. There have been a total of seven appraisal wells, and, in flow tests over 650,000 barrels have been produced. Gross 2P reserves have been put at 82 million barrels and these are bookable as proven and probable reserves. Nautical has just under 27 per cent of this field.

For various reasons it is taking time to develop Mariner. It has also become clear that the market has wanted Nautical to prove up some of its other prospects. When it announced last September a four field programme of drilling we said now the fun begins. In the event drilling has turned out to be more fun than expected.

The Kraken appraisal well 9/2b- 2 has been drilled by Nautical and its partners at a location 2.7 km north of the original 9/2-1 discovery well drilled in 1985 which tested the Heimdal sandstone. The 9/2b-2 was drilled to a depth of 4378 ft subsea and encountered oil-bearing Palaeocene Heimdal sands at a higher elevation than in the discovery well. There was a gross oil column of at least 252 feet, which confirmed a substantial accumulation. There was 79 feet of net pay within the high quality Palaoecene with good porosity and permeability.

Commenting on the well, broker KCB Peel Hunt said: The successful appraisal well on Kraken announced by Nautical suggests that potential reserves in the field may be significantly higher than the gross 53 million barrels of contingent resources estimate disclosed by the company. Equally importantly the oil found in this well is lighter than anticipated at 18 degree API. Based on the results to date, we are increasing our estimate of recoverable reserves on Kraken to 100 million barrels (from 53) and reducing the risk factor from 50 to 70 per cent (probability of success).

The broker says there is further appraisal work and most likely a production test still to be carried out. This could demonstrate further upside on the field. Steve Jenkins the CEO of Nautical said: I am extremely pleased with our first operated well. This is a very positive result for such an aggressive appraisal well.

And of course, there is more drilling to come. Nautical will shortly be mobilising the rig to start drilling the Mermaid exploration well on Block 9/11c. It has a 50 per cent interest in this prospect and will have the initial well costs fully carried by its partners. Mermaid is a potential 112 million barrel prospect in the Maureen reservoir, lying immediately to the south of the Mariner field and in an analogous geological setting.
In France, Nautical is preparing for an appraisal well in the Grenade prospect. This should lead to testing during the spring of 2008 to confirm production. Nautical has a net interest in 2.8 million barrels of best estimate contingent reserves on the Grenade prospect in the Aquitaine Basin.

Nautical will also commence a site survey of the Selkie prospect in the UKCS which contains net best estimate prospective resources of 13.2 million barrels of oil, ahead of a planned well in 2008.

While it might still be a touch premature to say as Steve Jenkins is wont to do that the day of heavy oil has truly arrived, it can be claimed that proving up the prospectivity of a further 100 million barrels of oil reserves through the current drilling programme is looking on the conservative side.

Looking like a break of 13p is coming, for good.

I certainly hope it does.........

Edison note on "Junior Oils" - mentions AEX, NPE amongst others.

PDF file can be downloaded on the link below :

http://www.esnips.com/doc/128fc9a0-7004-48dd-bf19-57e9a14e1055/JuniorOil


.

Rec'd this from Peter Shearlock's small cap stock picks this morning...
Looks ecncouraging...and I've topped up a bit this morning as well!

Nautical success at Kraken

Nautical Petroleums first operated well on the North Sea Kraken field has come up trumps, encountering a long oil column that justifies a material upgrade to earlier reserve estimates. The oil is also lighter than expected, which should aid recovery. Hardman & Co now reckon Kraken alone is worth 13p a share and the whole portfolio, including exploration acreage, worth 31.6p a share. So, with the shares currently trading at 13p (up from Septembers 10p recommendation price), everything else is in for free. With Nautical now moving on to drill the Mermaid field, the shares are a strong hold.

RNS today:
Nautical Petroleum PLC
27 November 2007

Nautical Petroleum (AIM:NPE), the independent E&P company focused on the
development of heavy oil assets in the UK and Europe is pleased to announce that
the Mermaid exploration well 9/11c-13 spudded on 22 November 2007.

9/11c-13 is an exploration well on the Mermaid Prospect which is analogous to
and lies directly south of the Mariner discovery (Block 9/11a). This is
Nautical's second operated well and initial results are expected towards the end
of December.

The interests held in Block 9/11c are Nautical Petroleum plc 50%, Celtic Oil
Limited (wholly owned by SK Energy) 40% and Silverstone CNS Limited 10%.

Commenting on the spudding, Steve Jenkins Chief Executive of Nautical said:
'Mermaid is the second prospect Nautical is testing in our drilling programme,
where the technical work completed to date suggests that best estimate
prospective resources total 129 mmbo. If successful, this will represent a
further material addition to Nautical's resources and reserves.'

This lot look interesting

Glad you think so Big Al.

This is starting to be a frustrating share, it was sat at approx the 12.5p mark before the last RNS which was truly positive, including higher grade oil and lots more of it... and where is the sp now...???!!!

WHy are we not currently higher on this? Does anyeon think we are looking at New Year before we see anything worth writing home about?

Looking at the graph I think the price is nicely consolidating this level and when we do break 13p it will be more sustained. More patience required for the time being. Also I note in the Hardman November update they expect a flurry of news in the coming months.

Anyone looked at other comnpanies lately to see how the volatile markey is affecting them?

Very few are immune.

Evening all.

Warm night.

michaelwalters.com - Heavy Oil - Nautical Petroleum (NPE) [6/11/2007]

Link to ADVFN site I think

pb - the link works and a good idea. Why not put it in the header and I will do likewise

steelwatch (aka oilwatch)

Ha!

I knew it was you you monkey!!!

I really do think your blog over the road is the market leader.............

It's time to update this header in any event here, but I wonder if it's time you opened one here, or the alternative could be for you to post me your work and I claim the credit for it!!

LOL

oilie, are you in TRP?

Could be a biggie.......