This looks a very good bet? Mentioned in the share magazine.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/21/russia-energy-tax-idUSLDE76K14E20110721

and:

Petroneft (USc) (PTR LN)
Price: $0.51 Rating: Outperform Issued: 09/08/10
Russian president signs into law reduced tax bill for small oil fields
Caren Crowley

FACTS: On July 21st, a new bill to encourage the development of smaller oil fields in Russia by reducing the Mineral Extraction Tax (MET) payable was signed into law by the Russian president. The law comes into effect on January 1st 2012.

ANALYSIS: The law allows for a sliding scale reduction in the MET for fields below 5m tonnes, roughly 37m barrels. The maximum reduction will result in a halving of the MET rate. This will occur for fields up to 7.5m barrels, whereas fields containing 30m barrels will receive only a 12.5% discount. Fields containing 22.5m barrels will receive a 25% discount and so on. The MET rate relief will have a material impact on cash net back to producers of small fields, such Petroneft. Petroneft believes the tax relief can boost cash from operations by $8m in 2012 alone. The impact should be greater in future years. In other words, there is a potential additional profit margin of $7 per barrel (at $80 per barrel export price) versus a typical profit margin of $10-12 per barrel for Western Siberian oil fields.

DAVY VIEW: The new law is very good news for Petroneft. At present we see the tax change improving our NAV of 62p per share to 70p per share. However, we believe the additional value could be greater than our initial 8p per share estimate as our model is based on an older field development schedule. We believe management will optimise its development programme to maximise the benefit of the new tax relief.

BINGO! LOL

04 August 2011

PetroNeft Resources plc

("PetroNeft" or the "Company")

Discovery of Significant New Oil Field at Sibkrayevskaya

PetroNeft Resources plc (AIM: PTR), the owner and operator of Licences 61 and 67, Tomsk Oblast, Russian Federation, is pleased to announce its largest single discovery to date, a new oil field at Sibkrayevskaya in Licence 61.

Highlights:

-- Sibkrayevskaya No. 372 well makes significant oil discovery in main Upper Jurassic target

o Approximately 12.6 metres of net oil pay in J1 interval - exceeding pre-drill estimates

o Good reservoir properties indicated with oil saturation throughout

o Open hole inflow test of 170 bopd (unstimulated)

o Sixth oil field discovered in Licence 61

-- Development drilling at Lineynoye continues to push field boundary significantly further north and encounters materially thicker pay

o An additional well is now planned to be drilled 500 metres beyond the most northerly well to date

-- Exploration to commence at Licence 67 with first well scheduled later this month

-- Russian Mineral Extraction Tax reduction law passed and comes into effect on 1 January 2012

o Enhancing profit margin from qualifying fields

Sibkrayevskaya No. 372 well

The Sibkrayevskaya No. 372 well at the Sibkrayevskaya prospect located in the north east corner of Licence 61 was spudded on 9 July 2011. It was a follow up to well No. 370 which was drilled in 1972. A comprehensive re-interpretation of the vintage well logs and drilling data from the 370 well using digitalised logs and modern interpretation tools had indentified potential "missed pay" in the Upper Jurassic J1 interval. In the new well, No. 372, the Upper Jurassic J1 oil reservoir horizon was intersected as expected at -2,350.5 metres true vertical depth. Preliminary evaluation of the logs indicates that the J1 interval consists of 12.6 metres of net pay with good reservoir properties and oil saturation throughout, exceeding pre-drill estimates. An open hole test was conducted over this interval and tested at a pro-rated inflow of 170 bopd unstimulated. Based on preliminary analysis, the oil is of good quality with an API gravity of 37 degrees, which is consistent with other fields in Licence 61.

Sibkrayevskaya is a very large structure which will require additional seismic and well delineation. The 372 well was drilled in a flank position on the structure and current mapping shows an area of over 50 square kilometres up dip from the oil-down-to level defined in the well. Current indications are that the ultimate recoverable reserves in the field could be significantly larger than the 44 million barrel pre-drill target defined by Ryder Scott for the prospect. The discovery also extends the area of known oil to the northeast corner of the licence area and improves the prospectivity of other structures in this area.

This discovery well adds a sixth oil field to Licence 61 and proves the strategy of following up on re-interpreted well logs from old wells that show potential by-passed oil pay zones. It is hoped to further appraise the Sibkrayevskaya oil field with a seismic programme and the drilling of at least one appraisal well in 2012.

Licence 61 Development programme

Two further development wells have been drilled from Pad 2 at the Lineynoye oil field. Well 208 encountered 8.8 metres of net oil pay. Well 207, which was the northernmost well drilled to date encountered 17.8 metres of net oil pay. This well was drilled at a location that had originally been interpreted to be outside the boundaries of the oil field and the result further proves that the Lineynoye field extends much further north than previously estimated. An additional well will now be added to this year's programme at Pad 2 to drill the reservoir approximately 500 metres further north of the 207 location.

The results of well 207 and other recent Pad 2 wells have shown that the northern part of the Lineynoye field has materially thicker pay and extends significantly further north than originally anticipated. This has positive implications for reserves and productivity in this region of the field and for the likelihood of several new structures north of Lineynoye/West Lineynoye to be oil bearing.

Licence 67 Exploration programme

Exploration on Licence 67 is due to commence shortly. The mobilisation of the drilling rig to the Cheremshanskaya site has been completed and rig-up operations are underway. It is expected that the well will be spudded later this month. The well is targeting objectives at the Upper, Middle and Lower Jurassic horizons following up on previously drilled wells. The well will take up to two months to complete drilling and testing.

Mineral Extraction Tax (MET) reduction law for small fields

The MET reduction law for small fields was signed into law by President Medvedev on 21 July 2011. The law will become effective from 1 January 2012. The law is applicable to undeveloped fields with Russian C1+C2 recoverable reserves below 5 million tonnes (approximately 37.5 mmbbls). The law applies a sliding scale of discounts depending on the initial size of the field. The Arbuzovskoye field which is the focus of our development activities for next year has Russian registered C1+C2 recoverable reserves of 1.3 million tonnes and consequently it will qualify for a 46% MET discount. This will significantly enhance the profitability and cashflows of the Arbuzovskoye and other qualifying oil fields and accelerate the development of such fields in the Licence area.

Dennis Francis, Chief Executive Officer of PetroNeft Resources plc commented:

"We are delighted with the discovery at Sibkrayevskaya, a significant new oil field which is our largest single discovery to date in terms of reserves. This is an especially important discovery, because it proves our strategy of following up on previously drilled structures by re-interpreting old well data using modern software and techniques to identify by-passed pay. The two well exploration programme now commencing at Licence 67 is also based on re-interpreted data from old wells. We look forward to updating shareholders on the results of these wells later in the year. "

Good result......this will be 100p or more at some stage....

Brokers note,

Davy Stockbrokers Today

Petroneft
(PTR LN)

Discovery to boost reserves by at least 45%; latest development wells very promising

04 August 2011
Caren Crowley

Closing Price:
$0.53

Rating:
Outperform

09/08/10
FACTS: Petroneft has released an operational update.

ANALYSIS: Petroneft has made its largest single discovery to date with the Sibkrayevskaya well on Licence 61 (Petroneft:100%) in Western Siberia. The well was drilled on the Sibkrayevskaya structure in the north-east corner of Licence 61 and was following up on potential by-passed oil pay identified from a re-interpretation of the electric logs from a well drilled in 1972.

Prior to drilling, the Sibkrayevskaya structure was thought to hold 44m barrels (mmbbl). On this basis, we estimated a discovery at Sibkrayevskaya could add just over 6p to our 70p valuation for Petroneft. This looks conservative now.

Based on results from the Sibkrayevskaya well, management believes that the ultimate recoverable reserves could be significantly larger than the 44 mmbbl pre-drill estimate. To contextualize this, a 44mmbbl discovery could boost Petroneft's proven and probable reserves by 45%. Preliminary results reveal a net pay thickness of 12.6m versus pre-drill estimates of up to 8.4m with good reservoir quality. An open hole test on the oil saturated interval flowed 170 bopd (unstimluated).

An appraisal well to define the size of the Sibkrayevskaya field is planned for 2012.

Elsewhere, log results from two more development wells on the Lineynoye oil field display material thicker net pay. This has positive implications for productivity (something Petroneft has struggled with) and reserve upgrades.

Exploration on Licence 67 is due to commence shortly with the spudding of a well on the Cheremshanskaya prospect. The exploration strategy for this prospect is the same as that for Sibkrayevskaya, that is, the Cheremshanskaya well will twin an old Soviet well to explore for by-passed pay. The well is targeting 30mmbbl net to Petroneft from multiple horizons. The well is due to spud later this month and is expected to take two months to complete.

DAVY VIEW: This is very good news from Petroneft. The successful oil discovery at Sibkrayevskaya adds at least 6p to our 70p per share valuation. The stock deserves to rally on this news.

http://www.davy.ie/LR?id=1393

RF an excellent result would be a apt discription,net play some 50% greater than expected. One could say it's negative in so much as it exceeds the field size for tax
relief,not that it is.The new tax laws coming in Jan 2012 are believed to be worth $8m
extra profit to PTR and adds credence to the 1 you mentioned,couple todays news with expected reserve update and doubling of production year end,migght make that a little conservitive??

PetroNeft; Positive drilling update

PetroNeft released an update this morning outlining results for the Sibrayevskaya exploration well, data from the latest development wells to be drilled on Pad 2 and provided confirmation of the recent signing into law of a reduction in Mineral Extraction Tax (MET) for fields below the 5 million tonne (37.5 mmbbls) threshold. With respect to Sibrayevskaya net pay of 12.6 metres was encountered of good quality oil (37 degree API), which flowed at an un-stimulated rate of 170 bopd. As the well was drilled towards the flank of the structure with an estimated 50 sq km up-dip and as the pay encountered was in excess of pre-drill estimates (c.8-9m) guidance now suggests that the field reserves may be in excess of the 44 mmbbls originally estimated by Ryder Scott. To ascertain the recoverable volumes further seismic and up to two additional appraisal wells will be drilled, one of which is now scheduled for 2012. The drilling crew will now move to drill the North Varyakhskaya prospect on Licence 61, to target an estimated 6 mmbbls, which given proximity to the current production base could be tied-in relatively easily should the well come in on prognosis.

On the development front, results are provided for the 207 and 208 wells drilled on Pad 2. The latter is located to the west of the pad and yielded net pay of 8.8m. The former is to the north of the pad and yielded net pay of 17.8m. The significance of the location of the 207 well is that it is located beyond the original reserve boundary and thus adds to the belief that pay rates extend further to the north east than originally thought. To further test the extent of the development base from Pad 2 a follow-on well is now planned to be drilled c.500m north of the 207 well. The above aside, confirmation is also provided of the pending commencement of drilling activity on Licence 67 (PetroNeft 50% interest) where the Cheremshanskaya well (30 mmbbl target net to PetroNeft) is due to spud later this month with a result due c.2 months later.

While the PetroNeft share price has been weighed down of late due to the slower ramp up in production than originally guided, this mornings statement underlines the potential to add to the reserve base, which will have longer term benefits for the production base as those prospects are developed. Not to be outdone, the trend in terms of net pay north of Pad 2 also holds out the prospect that the lower pay encountered on Pad 3 can be counteracted from development activity north of Pad 2 and thus provides a greater degree of confidence that PetroNeft can achieve production targets beyond the current year.

Recommendation; Buy
Closing Price: 0.33
Gerry Hennigan
T +353-1-6419274
E gerry.f.hennigan@goodbody.ie

I'm staying put with my holding no matter what....the problem is that I would have added but I'm getting stuffed elsewhere....

little lazy so i've copied this post by a knowledfable investor,sums up the potential.

the other hand one could hardly have much fear of being invested here, The company should have in the region of 160 million barrels after the latest success and have a good chance of adding another 80 million odd before year end. production due to increase significantly once the hydraulic fracturing is completed and most importantly they have no funding concerns in the foreseeable future.

Dam cheap imo,not far off a dollar a barrel,excluding 2500bopd and increasing,could be 500bopd+ come year end?

Not if double dip comes.

Why has the share price been so dormant lately?

At least it's up today....should be 3 times this price...

Has risen 2 days on the trot,high volune today,1.322m traded.Is news on the horizen ?

what is the actual date for ptr's results coming this month?

I don't know of thr date,bit if last years interims are anything to go by(Sept8th)soon?

PetroNeft Resources Plc

Chairman's Statement


Dear Shareholder,

To date, 2011 has seen further significant progress for PetroNeft. Our exploration programme has resulted in our largest discovery to date at Sibkrayevskaya and drilling results at two of our other targets are due in September. On the production well drilling, while we had a disappointing result at Pad 3 to the south, we have significantly extended the Lineynoye oil field beyond previous estimates to the north of Pad 2 where we continue to encounter encouraging net oil pays in the northern portion of the field. On balance, we expect the Lineynoye field reserves to remain about as predicted earlier, while very substantial reserves will be added at year-end as a result of our 2011 exploration drilling programme.

Production
Production in the six months to 30 June 2011 was 399,327 barrels of oil or an average of 2,182 bopd. During January and February most of the wells were offline in order for the hydraulic fracturing programme to be carried out. This programme achieved good results and provided essential information that will help us optimise the design of these programmes in the future to achieve even better results.

Beginning in October 2011, we plan to carry out a new fracture stimulation programme of about eight wells primarily focussed on new wells at Pad 2. In the first quarter of 2012 we will carry out a further fracture stimulation programme on the remaining wells drilled during 2011 and, depending on the results, we may also re-frac some of the Pad 1 wells that initially had smaller fracture stimulations carried out in early 2011.

Development drilling programme
At the beginning of 2011 we planned to drill 17 new production wells at the Lineynoye oil field, nine at Pad 2 and eight at Pad 3. We now expect to drill a total of 14 or 15 wells this year, all but two of which will be from Pad 2.

At Pad 2 we have now drilled ten wells and expect to drill two or three more before the year end. The principal reasons for adding wells at this location were the thicker than expected net pay encountered and discovering that the field extends further north than expected. At Pad 3 the first two wells encountered thinner net pays than anticipated and we took the decision to suspend drilling from this pad in order to test the two wells over the coming months and re-allocate technical and financial resources to drill additional wells north of Pad 2 where thicker pays have been encountered.
The results at Pad 3 led us to amend our near term production targets at the end of June 2011. While we will lose some reserves from the Pad 3 area when we compile our year end reserve report we are confident that this will be substantially offset by reserve additions north of Pad 2. The results we are achieving from the drilling at Pad 2, combined with updated seismic interpretations that incorporate the drilling results, also indicates that not only are the Lineynoye and West Lineynoye oil fields connected but that the overall Lineynoye field could extend significantly further north and be connected to the Emtorskaya high north of Lineynoye.


Exploration
Five exploration/delineation wells will be drilled in 2011, three at Licence 61 and two at Licence 67. Two have been drilled to date, one of which led to our largest discovery to date at Sibkrayevskaya. The third and fourth wells are in progress and their results should be available shortly.

Licence 61
The Kondrashevskoye No. 2 well was completed in June 2011 and encountered 2.3 m of net pay in the J1 interval, similar to the 2008 discovery well. The well tested high quality 41⁰ API gravity crude oil at a prorated inflow rate of 32 bopd on a short open hole test (without stimulation). As neither Kondrashevskoye well encountered the oil water contact for the field we sidetracked the No. 2 well down-dip to locate the oil water contact and determine the full reserve potential of the field. The reservoir interval of 3 metres in the sidetrack section was slightly thicker than in the vertical well with the top metre of the reservoir being oil bearing. Production casing has been run and cemented in the well so it can be used when the field is developed.

Based on these results, the well has most likely confirmed the existing independent Ryder Scott 2P reserves of 8.1 mmbo attributed to the field and we will now update the reserves with the Russian State Reserve committee in preparation for field development. The exact timing of development will depend upon how the economics of this field compares with other nearby fields, most notably Arbuzovskoye.

The second well in this year's programme was drilled at the Sibkrayevskaya prospect. The well was spudded in July and target depth was reached in early August.

The Sibkrayevskaya No. 372 well was a follow up to well No. 370 which was drilled in 1972. A comprehensive re-interpretation of the vintage well logs and drilling data from the 370 well using digitised logs and modern interpretation tools had indentified potential "missed pay" of 8.4 metres in the Upper Jurassic J1 interval. In the new well, the Upper Jurassic J1 oil reservoir horizon was intersected as expected and encountered 12.3 metres of net pay, exceeding pre-drill estimates. An open hole test was conducted over this interval and tested at a pro-rated inflow of 170 bopd unstimulated. The oil is of good quality with an API gravity of 37 degrees, which is consistent with other fields in Licence 61. The well has now been cased and a programme of drill stem testing is in progress.

Sibkrayevskaya is a very large structure which will require additional seismic and well delineation. The 372 well was drilled in a flank position on the structure and current mapping shows an area of over 50 square kilometres up dip from the oil-down-to level defined in the well. Current indications are that the ultimate recoverable reserves in the field are likely to be significantly larger than the 44 million barrel pre-drill estimate defined by Ryder Scott and the field will certainly be an important commercial development project for PetroNeft. The discovery also extends the area of known oil to the northeast corner of the licence area and improves the prospectivity of other structures in this area.

The final well to be drilled at Licence 61 in 2011 is at North Varyakhskaya. This well was spudded in August and a result is expected in September.

Licence 67
Two exploration wells are planned at Licence 67 in 2011. The first well, at the large Cheremshanskaya prospect, was spudded in late August. The well is targeting three separate horizons at the Upper, Middle and Lower Jurassic zones. Each horizon will be cored, tested and logged separately and initial results are expected in late September with results of lower horizons coming in October.

The second well at Licence 67 is at the Ledovoye oil field to delineate the Upper Jurassic zone but also targeting the Lower Cretaceous horizon. This well will spud in November with results expected in December.




Successful debt refinancing
In March 2011 PetroNeft agreed a revised debt facility with Macquarie Bank. The new loan is a longer term scalable borrowing base facility with increased flexibility at lower cost. Under the three year loan the initial available amount will be US$30 million with potential to increase up to US$75 million through the addition of new discoveries and developments subject to credit approval. The borrowing base will be reviewed every six months. The first review was completed in July 2011 and re-confirmed the US$30 million availability.

Financial results for the period
The net profit after tax for the period was US$3,067,178 (June 2010 loss: US$(5,287,356)). The profit includes a foreign exchange gain of US$5,969,474 on loans denominated in US Dollars, Russian Roubles and Euro from PetroNeft to its Russian subsidiaries Stimul-T and Lineynoye whose functional currency is the Russian Rouble.

Great news today, buy no price movement up... Market Manipulation?

Discovery of New Oil Field at North Varyakhskaya



PetroNeft Resources plc (AIM: PTR), the owner and operator of Licences 61 and 67, Tomsk Oblast, Russian Federation, is pleased to announce the discovery of another new oil field in Licence 61 at North Varyakhskaya.



Highlights:

Seventh oil field discovered in Licence 61

North Varyakhskaya No. 1 well makes oil discovery in main Upper Jurassic target

o 2.2 metres of net oil pay confirmed in J1-1 interval

o Open hole inflow test of 36 bfpd (unstimulated)

o Good quality oil - 36 degree API

o 2.5 metres of potential additional net pay in J1-2 interval requiring further testing

Development drilling at Lineynoye continues to push field boundary significantly further north

o Several wells have encountered materially thicker pay beyond the originally expected northern field boundary and have pushed the observed field oil-water contact at least 5 metres deeper

211 well encounters second thickest net pay interval to date

o One additional well is now planned to be drilled to the north of the last two wells

Exploration commenced at Licence 67 with first well now coring the uppermost objective with oil shows in the core.



North Varyakhskaya No. 1

The North Varyakhskaya No. 1 well at the North Varyakhskaya prospect located 6 km to the east of the Lineynoye Central Processing Facility was spudded on 17 August 2011. The well, which was drilled on the crest of the structure, has encountered approximately 2.2 metres of net oil pay in the J1-1 reservoir interval in a gross sand package of over 5 metres. There is also an additional 2.5 metres of potential oil pay in the J1-2 reservoir interval that will require more detailed logging and testing to confirm. A short open hole test of the J1-1 interval produced an inflow of 36 bfpd consisting of oil and mud filtrate. The oil is of good quality, 36 degree API, which is consistent with other oil fields in the Licence area. This preliminary test indicates that the reservoir will need fracture stimulation for economic development, as is usual in the area.

Great news today also, but the shareprice has got me asking the same question again..

No, theone23. Quite a few companies have produced good drilling resilts recently, yet the sp's have barely moved or have, in fact, gone down. The whole market is weak atm, with many investors seeking safer stocks with some kind of return. When investors are making money and seeking the more risky stocks then many of these will surge ahead, imo, but not yet.

At some stage this will take off, we just have to be patient ; I have a target of something above 100p !.