Up 10% today any interest.

I'm afraid 60p is on the cards unless the awaited news on Sap 3 is released pretty smartly. Even then, in these markets and if positive it may not have much effect on the SP.

Yes that's how i see it,almost sold am,but thought it worth waiting for news,probably the wrong choice?

Cyril, pleased you didn't sell - an outstanding result!

Cheers,yes an excellent result, now lets see what response we get in this dreadful market?

I could have sold yesterday am, higher than their offering at present. Hoping it's to flush out the sell on news and we will see the value of todays update later,wishful thinking maybe?

A post which seems to sum up the market at present and why i'm considering selling.

MARGIN REQUIREMENTS-The margin requirement on a stock like Medusa is some 40%.

thus you have forced sellers,BEING FORCED to diminish their overall portfolio margin requirements and looking to reduce the heaviest margin requirement stocks first so they can stay at the table. That's the SB /CFD MARKETS for you.Welcome to 1929 and horrific deleveraging.Whether the stock is cheap or not,is, for the time being,irrelevant.Pointless to rationalise,you have forced selling and it won't just apply to Medusa,as we all know.

Hi Cyril
Obviously I didn't expect that sell off on such good news.
Well, that's the markets for you at the moment, as always at times like this many stocks will become very cheap, it's just knowing when to buy.

cyril - a point i have alluded to a couple of times on the FTSE thread, exacerbated by the fear (real or otherwise) that the markets are indeed odds-on to implode along with the eurozone etc

Hi pete, can only put sp down to a lack of testing along with funding issues?

cynic i must admit i've been busy of late(diy) and missed your posts,most spare time
checking out GKP.


http://investing.thisismoney.co.uk/broker-views/

Here's one that I cannot believe the drop.....

This comment from the FT Oil sector watcher:
"If not quite the slam-dunk result we were hoping for, a reasonably encouraging update from BLVN. The Sapele-3 well offshore Cameroon has encountered an additional 8 metres of hydrocarbons following the initial 11 metres announced a month ago. The extra pay has been found in the deeper Epsilon complex following the earlier find in the Deep Omicron. Sapele-3 is located 16 kilometres north-west of the Sapele 1 well, i.e. a fairly extensive stepout, and if the structure ultimately proves to be one continuous one then the reserves potential would be extremely material. However quite clearly it is too early for the group to make this claim, and it appears that a lot more work is needed on Sapele to prove whether or not it is commercial at all. Disappointingly the group was unable to test either of the intervals for technical/safety reasons, although the well has been suspended with a view to re entering in the future to undertake a test. Currently BLVN expects to have a rig back on its permit by Q2 next year which will appraise both Sapele and the IE/IF discoveries.
On balance then, Id certainly be a long-term buyer of the shares, given the enormous upside, despite the short-term lack of clarity. Our risked NAV is 280p/share vs a current price of 74p, a level last seen in summer 2009. The group is well-financed following a recent $120m fund-raising at 103p/share, and the imminent completion of the EOV asset disposal would add a further $35m."

Well the completion of the EOV asset should solve funding? A lack Flow tests is the stumbling block?

Cyril

Even without the EOV asset biz there were no funding issues after the recent placing.

Problem is that BLVN have been unable to test and therefore the pay zones they have discovered remain unproven. Previous appraisal wells didn't go exactly to plan either, hence the fall from grace from 400p to where we are today.

I have no doubt that the resevoir is potentially massive, but until they can flow test and prove connectivity between Sapele 1 & 3, the SP is vulnerable.

Could be a long wait until Q2 2012 :-(

Hi pete,yes the recent fund raising certainly ensures the immediate future,however the
costs of drilling these deep offshore wells eat into any cash pile. I think tey can exceed $100k a day for hire of the rig and at 4400m total depth it's taken approx 100 days(spud 11th aug),so EOV becomes vital long term.
On a more positive note S-1 flow rates, 9th June RNS.


Bowleven, the West Africa focused oil and gas exploration group traded on AIM is pleased to announce the results of testing activities at the Sapele-1ST appraisal well drilling in the Douala Basin, offshore Cameroon. Drill stem testing was performed within the Deep Omicron interval at Sapele-1ST and a light oil flowed on test.

Highlights
Stabilised flow rate of 3,101 boepd produced on test at Sapele-1ST

High quality light oil (39.2 degree API) produced on test; oil quality and gas-oil ratio comparable to that encountered at the original Sapele-1 well

Looks like my positive comments have done the trick, lol. More likely to be shortx closing
their positions?

SOmething weard happen on above post,unable to delete?

November 29, 2011 8:13 pm

Small caps: Bowleven climbs amid takeover talk

By Neil Hume

Bowleven was in focus on Tuesday. Its shares climbed 12.7 per cent to 73p on takeover speculation. Some traders reckon recent share price weakness has left the Cameroon-focused explorer vulnerable to a bid. Bowleven is trading close to two times net cash, making it one of the most attractively valued exploration and production compani

November 30, 2011
http://oilbarrel.com/news/bowleven-claims-a-fourth-successful-well-in-the-douala-basin-offshore-cameroon-in-west-africa

Bowleven Claims A fourth Successful Well In The Douala Basin Offshore Cameroon In West Africa
The debate surrounding Edinburgh-based Bowleven plc for most of this year has not been about whether the company has discovered hydrocarbons with on its acreage (Blocks MLHP-5, MLHP-6 and MLHP-7) in the under-explored Douala Basin offshore Cameroon in West Africa, but more on the range and extent of the discoveries. Concerns over the complexity of the stratigraphic structures have seen the AIM companys shares fluctuate widely in recent months, mostly in a downward trend. The uncertainties centre on whether the company has found a world class oil and gas province, whose potential can be realised, as once seemed likely, or not.
However, the comment on the latest announcement from Bowleven by Kevin Hart, the groups Chief Executive accentuates the positive. He says: Sapele-3 has been a successful well, our fourth consecutive well in the Douala Basin to encounter significant hydrocarbon intervals at multiple levels. The discoveries made in the Epsilon Complex and shallower Tertiary intervals representing a total of 19 metres of net hydrocarbon bearing pay, have at each level extended considerably the previously defined play fairway boundaries.
The current phase in the Bowleven story started earlier this year when the Sapele-1 wildcat on MLHP-5 found hydrocarbons in five target reservoirs ranging from the proven Miocene fairway to the deeper Cretaceous. That well was abandoned after a rapid influx of very high pressure gas in the Cretaceous section but not before proving the Miocene oil play extends into Cameroonian waters and that the deep Cretaceous play which has proven to be such a game changer elsewhere in West Africa is also present here.
The company decided to drill a sidetrack which was designed to target the Miocene Deep Omicron some two kilometres to the southeast of the original Sapele-1 discovery. By April 2011 we learned the well discovered 23 metres of net hydrocarbons bearing pay in the Omicron objectives.
The sidetrack found 1.4 metres of net pay in the Upper Omicron, overlying 24 metres of high quality reservoir which, unfortunately was found to be water bearing. The main target, the Deep Omicron, intersected high quality thin inter-reservoir units. The reservoir was less well developed than in the original wellbore but the company still logged about ten metres of net pay with porosity of 19 per cent. It failed, however, to recover fluid samples and pressure data from the Deep Omicron.
Analysts became ambivalent about the Sapele wells. Bowlevens acreage offshore Cameroon, we believe, has significant potential, but at this stage it looks like extracting that potential could take longer and be more complicated than perhaps the market was anticipating, said David Farrell, oil analyst at Evolution Securities.
The market was disappointed at what it considered to be an inconclusive set of results and the shares fell 43p to 300p.
By June this year confidence in the shares was restored a bit as the testing proved positive. The Drill Stem testing at Sapele-1 ST was conducted over a 71 metre perforated interval. The interval flowed at a stabilised rate of 2,023 bopd of 39.2 degree API oil and approximately 6.47 million standard feet of associated gas a day (mmscfd) on a 56/64 inch choke, making 3,101 boepd in all. The interval tested at Sapele-1 ST correlates on seismic with the Deep Omicron drilled by the original Sapele-1 well.
But in a real topsy turvey fashion the shares, having motored back up on this news, took another hit in August with the results of the Sapele-2 well. The company said the Sapele-2 test programme achieved a peak flow rate of 2,738 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) including high quality light oil, from the Deep Omicron interval. This was despite compromised well bore and other operational issues.
Bowleven said it put P90 unrisked in--place estimates following the Sapele Deep Omicron discovery at 87 million boe and for the Deep Omicron fairway at a much greater 477 million boe. Based on preliminary development screening 10 to 20 million barrels of recoverable oil at current oil prices could potentially justify a commercial development, Bowleven said in a statement. Oil recovery factors are initially estimated to range between 10 and 30 per cent, it said.
Based on these well results there is plenty of oil and gas in the zones tested, but maybe not as much as analysts and the market were hoping for. The shares fell to around 73.25 p on the well report having been 414.25 p in the past 12 months, although the shares have also been caught up in the general nervousness and turmoil of equity markets generally.
Kevin Hart remained upbeat on the news saying in August that further drilling would be carried out as part of the appraisal plan, despite the mixed reaction to the results. Apart from the share price movement joint venture partner Vitol decided not to participate in a further well. Hart said The Sapele discoveries provide a foundation to Bowlevens strategy of moving resources to reserves on Block MLHP-5. Although the zones are described as deep the well are being drilled in shallow waters of around 30 metres just offshore in the Douala Basin.
Bowleven sole risked the Sapele -3 well after Vitol dropped out. The results seemed to suggest Kevin Harts confidence has been vindicated. The company has said it was delighted to announce the discovery of oil at the Sapele-3 exploration well. Eleven metres of independently assessed net hydrocarbon pay intersected within the upper part of the Deep Omicron interval; up to a further 11 metres net is currently interpreted as having either a high residual hydrocarbon bearing response from the logs. The majority of the reservoir is located in two gross sand packages, exhibiting high net to gross ratios and good quality reservoir. The packages appear to correlate back to earlier Sapele wells.
A clearly delighted Kevin Hart said: The well has now shown that the Deep Omicron interval extends considerably beyond the currently mapped area which has significant implications in terms of both volumetrics and prospectivity on both block MLHP-5 and MLHP-6.
Now we have news of further drilling. The Sapele-3 exploration well has been drilled to total depth (TD) of 4,480 metres. The well found a further 8 metres of net pay intersected in deeper reservoirs, in addition to the 11 metres within the Deep Omicron interval previously announced. The reservoir package in the deeper Palaeocene Epsilon Complex is in the same stratigraphic interval encountered in Sapele-1. Indications from shows and mud log analysis suggest the Epsilon reservoir package is oil bearing. The discovery at the Epsilon interval represents a substantial step-out from Sapaele-1 and extends the known play fairway well beyond the previously mapped area..
Volatility is nothing new in the small caps oil game, of course. Bowlevens shares went up a little on this further drilling news, but are still some way off their peak.