http://www.gulfkeystone.com/ The firms exploration programme in Algeria is going well and "the shares look good value", say the Investors Chronicle. Your comments please. goal.

Got a note reminder saying Shaken 2 TD june so could be working it's way up slowly for then, I hope.,.

A rare riser.....I seem to be in too many things at the moment.....come on the markets...it's not all doom and gloom...Man U are in the final....!.

"F" man U.,. lot of ballls if you ask me.,.

By Ben Van Heuvelen of Iraq Oil Report
Published May 6, 2011

Iraqs central government has made its first-ever payments to oil companies operating in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

The triggering of the oil payments mechanism signifies the commitment to resolve the outstanding issues between Erbil and Baghdad in accordance with Iraqs Constitution, said Barham Salih, prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), in a press release Thursday.

Wonder if they are now factoring in that the Kurdistan license issue might not be sorted for many more years ?

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/iraq-slashes-projected-crude-output-half-over-next-5-years

.

Iraq will not lower ambitious oil output target
Mon, 09/05/2011 - 15:40 | Fiona Bond

Oil-producing heavyweight Iraq said it has no plans to lower its 12 million barrel per day oil output capacity, following feverish speculation that it would look to slash the numbers.

Deputy prime minister for energy Hussain al Shahristani said the government had no intention to renegotiate its contracts with oil firms over their targets, according to Reuters.

Speculation had mounted that Iraq would seek to cut its target of 12 million barrels per day by 2017 to between 6.5 million and seven million barrels per day and renegotiate with international oil companies operating in the country to slash their own production targets.

However, Shahristani said the oil ministry remained contracted to produce that amount of oil per day, although final numbers would depend on the international market situation and demand dynamics.

"From an international energy industry perspective, few watchers, if any, seem to believe that Iraq could hit its overambitious target any time near 2017, with IHS Energy estimating that a six million b/d production capacity by about 2020 should still be regarded as a good achievement given Iraq's enormous logistical, project management and bureaucratic challenges," said IHS Global Insight's senior Middle East energy analyst Samuel Ciszuk.

The OPEC member is currently producing somewhere between 2.6 and 2.7 million barrels of crude per day.

Meanwhile, Shahristani was quoted as saying the oil ministry had reached a final draft contract on a proposed $12 billion Shell (RDSB)-led natural gas project.

The contract is believed to have been passed on to the cabinet for approval, after which it will be signed.

The South Gas project aims to capture associated gas from some of the main oilfields in Iraq's southernmost Basra governorate, initially starting with around 700 million cubic feet of natural gas flared there each day.

The deal was initially reached in 2008, Cizsuk said, although problems with how it was awarded and communicated to the Iraqi people led to it being dogged by heavy political opposition. Although headway was made, legal hurdles persisted around the complex deal given the lack of new oil law in Iraq and the old oil law's lack of modern regulation with regard to the gas arena.

"If the project is finally allowed to get underway, it would relatively quickly result in growth in Iraq's volumes of produced gas and allow the country's power generation reconstruction programme to take off. In fact, gas availability is likely to grow much faster than power reconstruction, raising the need for at least temporary exports," Cizsuk explained.

However, this could pose a politically contentious issue, as many Iraqis might find the news of gas exports when they are still suffering electricity shortages rather irksome. Hence, although the project might finally be close to moving forward, Cizsuk warns that a "renewed political backlash" against it can't be excluded.

By Ali Abu Iraq of Iraq Oil Report
Published May 10, 2011

Hundreds of workers from Iraq's southern oil hub of Basra protested outside numerous facilities Monday, claiming Oil Ministry officials have ignored repeated concerns about the use of funds, equal pay, and the allocation of housing.

One of the biggest areas of contention is part of the realignment of the state-owned State Oil Company (SOC) as it works with foreign oil companies contracted to drastically boost production capacity.

A first cash advance to DNO of
USD 110 million has now been
confirmed by the Kurdistan
Regional Government and forms a
basis for increased activities by
DNO in Kurdistan going forward.

from dno presentation

http://hugin.info/36/R/1514379/450523.pdf

Published May 12, 2011

Iraq signed a $13.3 million contract on Tuesday with the Canadian consulting firm SNC-Lavalin to help develop a pipeline network that will send exports through Syria, add export capacity to Turkey, and facilitate domestic refining and consumption.

Anticipating a massive increase in oil production, the Oil Ministry is looking to build out pipelines in several directions. Iraq has already announced plans to revamp its southern export infrastructure

This seems to be good news,but until the t's are crossed and i's dotted???

http://arabnews.com/economy/article388440.ece

http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail/?display=discussion&code=cotn%3AGKP.L&it=le&action=detail&id=8253155&prevpost=8253133&nextpost=

Very interesting read, many thanks cyril.,.

http://bbjonline.hu/business/mol-could-start-test-production-in-kurdistan-region-of-iraq-as-soon-as-2012_57790

"MOL could start test production in Kurdistan region of Iraq as soon as 2012
MTI Econews

Monday 10:50, May 16th, 2011

Hungarian oil and gas company MOL sees big opportunities in the Akri-Bijeel and Shaikan blocks in the Kurdistan region of Iraq: several exploration wells have been drilled successfully and test production could start at one of the wells as soon as next year.

The Akri-Bijeel block has about 2.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) of which at least 20-30% can be extracted.

If the field were to produce 50m barrels it would be a success, according to experts. In Hungary, production of 1m barrels is already excellent.

The find in the Shaikan block is also outstanding and could prove to be even bigger than that in the Akri-Bijeel block.

Drilling in the blocks is expensive: the cost of a single well can reach USD 20m-40m. Three exploration wells will be drilled in the Akri-Bijeel block by the third quarter of 2012, and at least six more wells are planned.

For MOL, the Akri-Bijeel block bears more importance as the company owns a bigger share in it than in the Shaikan block. MOL is also directing the drilling in the Akri-Bijeel block.

MOL decided to acquire the two blocks in 2007, after long negotiations with the Kurdistan Regional Government.

MOL owns rights to 80% of the 889-square-kilometre Akri-Bijeel block and Gulf Keystone Petroleum International holds 20%. It completed the first exploration well there at the end of 2010. In the last phase of the test, the well produced 3,743 barrels of oil per day (BOPD) and 99 BOE of gas.

MOL started drilling the second exploration well in the block at the end of March.

MOL owns a 20% stake of the 283-square-kilometre Shaikan block. Its partners are Gulf Keystone Petroleum, the block's operator, and Texas Keystone.

The Shaikan-1 well, drilled last November, produced more than 4,600 BOPD. The Shaikan-2 well, drilled in March of this year, produced more than 8,000 BOPD and a daily 393 BOE, but MOL expects output to be higher in the production phase. The Shaikan-3 well produced 9,800 BOPD.

MOL also owns a 10% stake in Pearl Petroleum, a project company that has exploration and production rights for two other blocks in the Kurdistan region of Iraq: the 299-square-kilometre Khor Mor block and the 1,169-square-kilometre Chemchemal block. Production of gas and condensate and exploration are underway at the Khor Mor block. Exploration work is ongoing at the Chemchemal block. MOL's partners in Pearl are OMV (10%), Crescent Petroleum (40%) and Dana Gas (40%). MOL acquired its stake in the venture two years ago."

I thought the latest rns was very good but sp and market seem un-impressed. Hoped for a good jump this a.m

now take a look at the market overall - general bloodbath as it freaks out about possibility of greece defaulting (unlikely to be allowed imo)

It should have jumped by 10p at the very least but like cynic says.....bigger news prevails....

Gulf Keystone encouraged by Sheikh Adi-1 progress
StockMarketWire.com
Gulf Keystone Petroleum has revealed highly encouraging progress at the Sheikh Adi-1 exploration well in Kurdistan.

Gulf Keystone said the well had reached the Triassic and had cut a core in the Kurre Chine A at a depth of 3,293 metres.

The core of the Kurre Chine A contains good oil shows and a flow test is to be undertaken shortly.

The company also reports steady progress at the Shaikan-2 deep appraisal well which has been drilled to a depth of 2,655 meters.

The well is now in the top most section of the Triassic age formations and the Company is running casing.

Four cores totalling almost 30 metres have been recovered from the Mus formation, 23 metres of which had excellent oil shows.

An open hole test resulted in a significant flow, although a reliable oil measurement could not be obtained due to technical limitations of the down hole tools.

A similar zone on Shaikan-1 achieved 2,250 barrels of oil per day.

Shaikan-4, second deep appraisal well, 6 kilometres to the north-west of the Shaikan-1 discovery well, is targeted to drill to the top of the Permian.

The drilling rig is currently 98% rigged up at the well site, and is expected to spud before the end of May.

COO John Gerstenlauer said: "We will soon have four exploration/appraisal wells under way in Kurdistan with further wells expected to spud before the end of the summer.

"The company's steady progress in the Shaikan-2 and Sheikh Adi-1 drilling is highly encouraging and we look forward to obtaining more results from these two wells soon.

"The company views the recent announcement by the Kurdistan Regional Government confirming release of the first oil export payment to the KRG as an extremely positive development for all the oil producers in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

"This is especially good news for Gulf Keystone since we are preparing to meet the KRG's request to begin oil export at an initial volume of up to 5,000 bopd of crude."


Agreed with you both....looking very red on my list...still lookin good here though.,.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201105230700100571H

Excellent summing up by the much respected Zengas.

Excellent comprehensive update.

Main points as i see it -

Shaikan 2 now in the Triassic.
Impressive similarity in Jurassic section between Shaikan 1 and 2 wells (which is a span of 9km).
Testing once cased.

Sheik-Adi at 3293m.
Really interesting well as to potential OIP volumes.
45m of 'net' pay calculated in the Jurrasic.
Log Data beyond that of the cores (obtained in sections deeper than the test zones) - Oil in Basarin, Sargelu, Butmah and Mus. As in (acidized) zones in Shaikan 1 will need acid/fracture treatment.
Good oil shows obtained in the Triassic Kurre Chine A at 3293m - Flow test to be undertaken shortly.

Prior to todays news we had an estimated gross 'minimum' 50m interval in the Sheik-Adi Cretaceous.

Once well is complete an extensive cased hole testing programme being considered.

So Sheik-Adi oil in the Cretaceous, multiple zones in the Jurrasic and in the Triassic.

Export news significant with a planned initial 5,000 bopd.

Bechme significantly advanced at 1776m and just in to the Upper Jurrasic (watching MOL for news updates).

Shaikan 4 spud within 8 days.
Shaikan 5 spud after rig down at Sheik-Adi.

All in all excellent news and i beleive a significant discovery at Sheik-Adi in due course which was beleived to be about half the size of Shaikan at the pre drill stage.

i feel an xel type opportunity coming at this sp

sp for gkp is very low right now - bargain despite location of oil