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.

Strong rumours are perpetuating that the Ber Bahr-1 drill has struck oil, this is backed in in some ways by the strong moves upwards of GENL.

Any oil strike there could have strong upside implications for GKP.

News should be soon there as spudded on 10th October 2011, but, as ever, DYOR.


(Gulf Keystone has a 40 percent working interest in the Ber Bahr block operated by Genel Energy International Limited, which holds a 40 percent working interest in the block. The Kurdistan Regional Government has a 20 percent carried interest in the Ber Bahr Production Sharing Contract.

The Operator's resource estimate for the Ber Bahr block is 1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent-initially-in-place. The adjacent Shaikan is a major discovery with independently audited gross oil-in-place volumes of 4.9 (P90) to 10.8 (P10) billion barrels, while it is estimated that Sheikh Adi holds between 1 (P90) and 3 (P10) billion barrels of gross oil-in-place.)

Prosel, yes i believe it's looking good for BB and the end of the month sounds about right.As far as the value to GKP,if successful would be 40p(184p to GENL)at this early stage.If as thought it's one and half times bigger than Shaikan,then WOW,but of course
a couple of years or so and some serious money required to bring it to the same stage as Shaukan.
Concerning GENL's rise of late,they recently had Analysts crawling all over them. They have quite a few other Fields,some in operation and is the biggest oil producer Kurdistan.
So maybe the rise is not all down to BB,also remember when comparing the difference in number of shres, 890m/187m.

all hype and hypothesis ...... swallow it if you must, but pretty stupid to do so ...... none of these guys know any more than us

Living up to your name i see,nothing wrong in that.But if we take the 1.5 times figure this would be arrived from various tests carried out,"so yes they do know more than us",(don't make them right though). Analysts were the guests of GENL recently and from the SP,seems their'e happy with what they saw. As far as info leaking,happens all the time,
workers having a couple of days off(NO you win;t pass on the good news?),only time will tell but as i mentioned earlier posters get known and accordingly as to whether creditable.

i hold plenty and shall just wait and see .... meanwhile a bit of profit taking this morning

Oh the places you’ll go as a contractor! Here are three items from post-American Era Iraq involving security contractors:

– On January 11 or 12, four American security contractors, working for the US Embassy, were caught and detained in a Baghdad neighborhood. The four were armed, wearing body armor, and were traveling in a plain car without diplomatic plates or markings. The group included two men and two women. See their photo on al-Jazeera. Note the goatee, which just screams “merc.”


– On January 11, the World’s Largest Embassy (c) in Baghdad issued a public notice on its website saying “that the Government of Iraq is strictly enforcing immigration and customs procedures, to include visas and stamps for entry and exit, vehicle registration, and authorizations for weapons, convoys, logistics, and other matters. Rules and procedures may be subject to frequent revisions, and previous permissions may be deemed invalid… The U.S. Embassy is aware of cases where discrepancies in permits or paperwork have resulted in legal action, including detention, by Iraqi police and other entities. Detentions often last 24-96 hours or more. The Embassy’s ability to respond to situations in which U.S. citizens are arrested or otherwise detained throughout Iraq is limited, including in and around Baghdad.”


– Back in late December, three US Triple Canopy “security contractors” were arrested by the Iraqi Army, held for 18 days without charges and then released after reported efforts by the World’s Largest Embassy (c). The men were detained in a rural area south of Baghdad because the Iraqi military “did not like the ‘mission request authorization’ paperwork that had been issued by the Iraqi Ministry of Interior.”



So, let’s connect the dots:


It sounds like they are having a few bumps in the old road sorting out exactly how diplomacy is going to be practiced with a private army of some 5,500 mercenary security contractors in the mix. It seems those bad boys (and girls!) are not confining themselves to guarding diplomats on social calls to Iraqi ministries either, and are instead covering some ground and attempting some not-so-covert observation work. And getting caught.

Of course everyone is hoping for no Raymond Davis-like incidents that can happen when armed Americans motor around societies where they are not altogether welcome.

The New York Times, America’s steno pool of record these days, is there to soothe worried patriots. Turns out this is all just Iraqi growing pains, NYT sez. Since being allowed to take over its own immigration and internal security from Daddy America, Iraq is still learnin’ how to do it right. The Times quoted a senior American military official said that the current disconnect between the Iraqis and the contractors was “primarily an adjustment of our standard operating procedures as we adapt our people and they adapt their security forces to the new situation.”
Connect the Dots in Iraq: Mercs’ ‘R Us
Others have described it as a power play, with PM Maliki’s son, in some form of private capacity, leading the charge by throwing foreign contractor squatters out of the primo real estate inside the Green Zone.

One possible solution comes from Senator Ben Nelson (R-Absolute Knucklehead), who wants the Iraqis to pay all security costs for the World’s Largest Embassy (c) in Iraq, thus making all the mercs Iraqi government employees.

In our universe, however, the big money question is… what do these incidents have to say about the future of the World’s Largest Embassy (c) and the 5,500 mercs/security contractors they employ in Iraq? Is the Embassy going to spend its time putting out fires caused by the unusual non-so-diplomatic arrangements in Iraq, or is this just a beginners blip?

just for the record, there are certainly several big name oilfield service companies now operating in iraq ..... it's a minefield(!!) to get all the permits etc to bring in the hardware, and sometimes it even goes the roundabout way via turkey rather than via kuwait ..... from memory, entry via saudi is for personnel only .... once inside iraq, things generally travel within an armed convoy

This won't surprise me? Takem from another board.

Watching the keiser Report on RT News, a guy on there called Chris Cook, a former oil regulator, believes the price of oil is to drop to around the $50-$70 dollar a barrel soon, as the current price is being kept at an inflated price at the moment, but the money is being moved from commodities back into dollars.

Also a poster on 3i's suggests that BB is not so good and the reason for drilling deeper,although GENL's SP has risen over the last week,time will tell?

From iii?
< http://bit.ly/yZ2FEW

All looking very good :)

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201201230701479686V

BB-1 news not far away now, as it other news too.

.

Get the feeling BB-1 is going to be good..... only 228 metres to go to anticipated TD (about 8 drilling days), and a lot will be known already about what they have found so far.... back up by the GENL rises ?? ;)

And S-4 looks very nice indeed.


........John Gerstenlauer, Gulf Keystone's Chief Operating Officer commented:

"Initial results of the Shaikan-4 well testing programme are very encouraging with logging results indicating that Shaikan-4 may be the best well which Gulf Keystone has logged to date in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. We look forward to adding to our already outstanding drilling success in the region by completing further Shaikan-4 well tests, which will be followed by more results from the Shaikan-5 and Shaikan-6 appraisal wells before the appraisal programme of the Shaikan world-class discovery is completed. Initial results from the Ber Bahr-1 exploration well and progress in the 2012 wide-ranging exploration, appraisal and early development programme of the Akri-Bijeel block are also highly anticipated."..........

Steady flatish day ahead probably?

Great update,so much to look forward too,i particularly like this of BB.

Initial results from the Ber Bahr-1 exploration well and progress in the 2012 wide-ranging exploration, appraisal and early development programme of the Akri-Bijeel block are also highly anticipated."

So earlyish Feb to total depth for BB,then logging ? That word PATIENCE is cropping up againmwe're almost there?

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/23012012/58/premier-league-premier-league-balotelli-kick-intentional.html

Just seen this in 3i too re O&G law:

Iraq: New oil and gas law in days? (30 credits)
Posted on: Mon, Jan 23, 2012
Iraqi PM Nouri Al-Maliki is said to be preparing to announce the new oil and gas law in the coming days. The following 402-word report sheds light on the subject and tells what about preparations at the Iraqi Parliament and the Oil Ministry to make such an announcement. It also tells what about the contacts between the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on the subject.

http://www.tacticalreport.com/view_news/Iraq:_New_oil_and_gas_law_in_days/2

http://www.derrickpetroleum.com/2012/01/23/over-a-billion-worth-ep-opportunities-in-middle-east/

Times - Tempus today notes:
Gulf Keystone
Another of this column's picks for this year, GKP, put out a further encoraging update on it's wells in Kurdish Iraq. The shares are now up 47% since I tipped them at the start of the year, mainly on the assumption that someone will bid. They perforce remain in my portfolio, but investors who are not convinced that an approach is imminent might consider taking some profit in such a volatile stock.

http://www.investorsiraq.com/showthread.php?169487-Parliament-votes-on-eight-draft-laws-decide-to-adjourn-meeting-until-Tuesday-kisses&p=1140158#post1140158

Just came across this,sounds very positive and yes i believe the poster,lowersharpnose.

Yesterday's news release:

"Shaikan-4 tested a thin zone at the bottom of the Kurre Chine B formation achieving a flow rate of 4,970 bopd and 7.0 mmscf/d of gas at a 1,101 psi flowing wellhead pressure with initial results indicating a 39 degree API fluid."

I wanted to get a better idea of what thin means in this context, so I phoned GKP and spoke to John Gerstenlauer.

The Kurre Chine B (KCB) is thick interval. from the schematic diagram onP10 of the June presentation, the KCB stretched from 2582m to 2849m TVDSS. That's 267m gross.

http://www.gulfkeystone.com/uploads/gkp_investor_presentation-june2011.pdf

On Shaikan-1, the test of the KCB gave ~6k bpd + 21mmscfs. They performed this on a section of hole at the top of the interval that "looked good on the logs". I asked how thick the tested section was and JG said that they couldn't be sure because a lot of the tests were conducted open hole.

On SH-4, they picked a section of the KCB that was down at the bottom of the interval and that looked *crappy* on the logs. "We are past testing the good stuff" - they know that is going to flow.

This crappy section flowed at ~5kpd +7mm scfs.

Q: How thin was the tested section?

A: 5m.

Blinking heck, A 5m section, which looked crappy on the logs produced ~5kpd +7mm scfs!!

No wonder the RNS concludes:

"Initial results of the Shaikan-4 well testing programme are very encouraging with logging results indicating that Shaikan-4 may be the best well which Gulf Keystone has logged to date in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq."

It is a monster.

lsn