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.

I'm surprised their's no comment on post3692,

By Patrick Osgood of Iraq Oil Report
Published November 8, 2012

ERBIL - A new Turkish state oil and gas company is negotiating with Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region to take stakes in several exploration blocks – a development that would signal dramatic headway for the Kurds in their quest for oil sector autonomy.

No contracts have been signed, but four officials familiar with the talks confirmed that negotiations have reached an advanced stage.

The new Turkish company is looking to enter at least five Kurdish exploration blocks, according to the offic...


This will really upset the ICG and could lead to indepedence for the Kurds?

http://www.investorschronicle.co.uk/2012/11/08/shares/news-and-analysis/news-tips-gulf-keystone-balfour-beatty-wm-morrison-rightmove-supergroup-btg-spirent-more-mbkceAcdP1OG4b9m31tmiP/article.html

The second half of the WHI Note gives some more exciting developments which will get our hearts ticking IMHO....

· We anticipate further positive news from Akri Bijeel where Gulak-1 and Bakrman-1
exploration results are due by the end of 2012. We believe that, following a period of
significant underperformance in the stock due to the ongoing legal case with Excalibur
in the London courts, this exploration find provides a unique entry point for investors to
leverage on this weakness.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Gulf Keystone Petroleum confirms new discovery
By Darshini Shah | Thu, 08/11/2012 - 09:32

Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) has made a new discovery in the Sheikh Adi Block in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

The Sheikh Adi-2 exploration well on the block has achieved aggregate flow rates of 4,235 barrels of oil per day across four reservoir zones at measured depths of between 1,420 metres and 1,700 metres – the Upper Butmah, Adaiyah, Mus and Sargelu formations in the Jurassic. The well is located immediately to the west of the Company's Shaikan Block, which is a major commercial discovery

The well was spudded in May 2012, 1.45 kilometres to the north of the Sheikh Adi-1 exploration well, and was drilled to a total depth of 2,754 metres in September 2012.

Gulf Keystone, the operator of the Sheikh Adi Block, will now submit a discovery report to the Sheikh Adi Block management committee within 30 days. It has an 80% working interest in the block, while the Kurdistan Regional Government holds the remaining 20%.

"We are very pleased with the outcome of the second exploration well on the Sheikh Adi Block, which is in on trend with Shaikan, our major commercial discovery declared earlier this year," commented executive chairman and chief executive Todd F. Kozel.

"This most recent exploration success points to the significant potential for further growth and future synergies across our world-class acreage in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq."
Analyst view

Analysts at FoxDavies said the news that Sheikh Adi-2 had flowed oil to the surface was a “boon” for the development of the region: "Given the minimal separation between the Sheikh Adi location and the nearest collection hub for Shaikan, we believe that this will be brought on-stream quickly alongside Shaikan.

"Given the success of Sheikh Adi-1, we had largely de-risked the reserves associated with this accumulation and had already factored that the production would flow via the existing Shaikan infrastructure and would most likely be charged tariff or transmission cost opposed to having to invest in a separate production infrastructure."

They reiterated their ‘buy’ recommendation and 350p price target.
· Gulf Keystone remains one of our top picks in the sector given its ongoing exploration
success in Kurdistan, its low $/bbls valuation relative to similar peers, and takeout
potential which we see increasing following resolution of the Excalibur case. We
maintain our BUY recommendation and target price of 315p, and see a takeout value
using similar multiples to Genel/Vallares deal at 450p.

Surveillance ahead of Israeli strike on Iran in Q1 2013......... would make the whole middle east a big "avoid" zone.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2012/11/08/oil-markets-shrug-off-iranian-drone-attackfor-now/

pro must be bored, he has nothing to ramp atm.

A very dramatic day indeed in Court. Rex Wempen was hammered by the GKP barrister from the first ball, and it continued all through to close-of-play. There were around six quite significant interventions by the Judge, seeking to get Excalibur to answer questions or make their answers clear etc. I have 25 pages of A4 notes...on top of the 39 pages from yesterday...I am really not at all sure quite what to do with the content.

After lunch, the Clifford Chance team of two (sitting behind their remarkably silent barrister and his junior) was reduced to just one.

What seems, to me, to be happening is that after so many days of relentless cross examination, all sorts of apparent inconsistencies are appearing between Excalibur's written and verbal evidence, and between Excalibur's current and earlier verbal evidence.

All kinds of serious allegations and comments etc. were made today...imo it is starting to show signs of getting *very* ugly indeed.

Quite what the Excalibur barrister, Clifford Chance, and the Funder, think about the situation I do not know. But in my personal judgement, I would be surprised if they were happy with things. Just my opinion.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
: OK, from the very close-of play, in order to avoid any selectivity. With some paraphrasing.

GKP barrister: "You said 'Thank you for the offer of the Interest Free Loan while our investment team is involved in closing funding'"

He repeated it: "'While our investment team is closing funding'. Will you put your hand on your heart and confirm whether this is truthful, or not?"

The Judge then repeated the question

Rex Wempen: "It is incorrectly written. It talks about our fundraising plan"

GKP barrister: "Don't you see the difference? Here you are, saying to Mr. Kozel 'While our investment team is closing funding'"

Rex Wempen: "Mr Kozel knew (bob: about Excalibur's funding position)"

Judge: "If he knew it quite well, why did you use this wording which is incorrect?"

Rex Wempen: "I don't know why I used the wording"

(my previous caveats apply. the above is given in good faith and is taken directly from my manuscript notes of today, p.25 and p.26)

Note for clarification: the reference to the "Interest-free loan" was Rex Wempen taking seriously a joke which Todd Kozel had made, about providing Excalibur with an interest-free loan if they couldn't find the money for the PSC signature bonus etc. Rex Wempen had earlier today admitted that it was a joke by Todd Kozel but prima facie he took it seriously for a few days and wrote the above.

http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail/?display=discussion&code=cotn%3AGKP.L&it=le&action=detail&id=10170315

http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/world/story/iraq-cancels-52b-russia-arms-deal-over-graft-concerns-20121110

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20265130

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2012/11/09/Iraq-Exxon-pulls-out-Russia-wants-in/UPI-81141352487577/

all quite interesting, but much of it posturing by all sorts of parties i suspect .... nevertheless, it reads that there is now a considerable groundswell for the majors to pull out of iraq - almost certainly will not be so in the long term - and to pitch in their lot with kurdistan

All the false reports of the deal being canceled shows how desperate the US influenced media is to try to hide this deal....... its a significant move against the US.


http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2012/11/10/Iraq-Russia-arms-deal-not-canceled/UPI-26201352556545/

Iraq-Russia arms deal not canceled

Published: Nov. 10, 2012 at 2:12 PM


BAGHDAD, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office says a $4.2 billion arms deal with Russia has not been canceled but Maliki has "decided to review the whole deal."

"When [Maliki] returned from his trip to Russia, he had some suspicions of corruption, so he decided to review the whole deal. ... There is an investigation going on, on this," spokesman Ali al-Masawi told Russia Today.

Earlier reports Saturday indicated the deal -- which would have made Russia Iraq's second-biggest arms supplier after the United States -- was canceled.

Maliki's critics had questioned the deal, noting that Iraq had already signed multiple arms deals with the United States, the BBC reported.

Iraq's acting defense minister signed the initial contracts this year for 30 Mi-28NE night/all-weather capable attack helicopters, and 50 Pantsir-S1 gun-missile short-range air defense systems, RIA Novosti reported.

what a surprise! ..... merely a bit of rather girlie arm-wrestling by the iraqis to try to "persuade" gazprom not to walk out .... it really is looking more and more that the iraqis are coming under some heavy world heat to extract a digit and make a sensible, commercial deal with kurdistan .... if iraq does that, then the quid pro quo is that the country will receive loads of aid in many forms as well as the redevelopment of her oilfields, whose revenue iraq desperately needs ..... the converse is obvious

Part of Iraq report:

Published November 13, 2012
ExxonMobil has told Iraq's top oil official that the company is actively seeking to sell its stake in the super-giant West Qurna 1 oil field.

In a recent meeting with Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain al-Shahristani, an Exxon executive said the company "wishes to withdraw from the West Qurna field," according to Shahristani's spokesman Faisal Abdullah.

Although reports have long been circulating that the American oil giant is in talks with prospective buyers – and recently sent ...

The GKP barrister is getting increasingly irritated by Rex Wempen and he is now showing it. The barrister's approach is to clinically dissect Excalibur's claims and seek to prove they they are groundless...but the problem is that Rex Wempen's overarching position is that Excalibur is "in the right" and that NOTHING can disprove that.

We are, in effect, now in the realms of philosophy. If one has an established framework of logical and definitions, one can prove and disprove various arguments. But if words have fluid meanings, and what is said one day can be replaced with something different that one says the next day (or even ten minutes later) then what is the basis for any meaningful discussion? There cannot be one...except that an external party - in this case, the Judge - must "go above and beyond" such fluidity and act as a sort of referee.

I do not now believe that ANY argument by the GKP (or TKI) barrister will EVER be likely to box Rex Wempen into a corner. It is possible that Eric Wempen may prove easier to deal with. But I wouldn't count on that. On current evidence, I think that only the Judge will be able to make sense of what has been - frankly - a pantomime.

It is too tiresome to give details of my 22 pages of A4 notes from today. I have given some quite detailed debriefings to selected people this evening.

I shall, however, give one example. The GKP barrister referred to an email from John Cooper, the previous CFO at Gulf Keystone Petroleum, to Ian Patrick on 14 November 2007, copied to Mr Makatich and Todd Kozel. This concerned Eric Wempen, and in abbreviated form said something like "Last night, I took the liberty of checking out Eric Wempen as far as I could...he is a tax attorney...I think we need to find out in what capacity UBS are acting for Excalibur". The GKP barrister said: "Mr. Cooper was beginning to smell a rat, wasn't he?"

Of course, Rex Wempen replied "No. No rat at all here. Mr. Cooper was confused, he doesn't understand the Collaboration Agreement between Excalibur and Gulf"

And there we have it.

(usual caveats apply)

of more interest will be to see how incisive and clever the EXC barrister is ...... when does that act start?

1stly their's Eric to question,followed by the TKI barrister,so may end of mobth??


From MOL report courtesy of akteirman on 3

In Kurdistani Region of Iraq:
- In Block Akri-Bijeel drilling of Bakrman-1 exploration well continued. Drilling of Gulak-1 exploration well was started in July. Tests of the exploration wells are expected on the yearturn. Surface facility for early production from Bijeel-1 well is under construction, the start-up is expected in Q2 2013.
- In Block Shaikan testing of Shaikan-6 appraisal well continued while drilling of Shaikan-8 well started end of August. Upgrade is being designed for extended well test facility.

Aqra-1.
Drilling started on 17 January 2012, f inal depth was reached at 4 980 m in August.
Testing is ongoing.

Bakman-1.
Bakrman-1 well was spud on 7th of May 2012, actual depth was 3 930 m at end of
September.

Gulak-1.
Gulak-1 well was spud on 15 July 2012, actual depth was 2 404 m at end of
September.

http://ir.mol.hu/sites/default/files/en/2012/Q3/2012_Q3_FlashReport_ENG_PKB.pdf

barristers are having a field day then ..... that'll be a very happy bunch of lawyers at christmas, being EASILY able to afford 2 week holidays in the west indies with their extended families

Seems the reason for such a lengthy case is,that as a civil action one is not made to answer the question,as in a criminal trial.RW is aware of this,so no answer or evasion is better than the wrong answer?imo

that as may be, but the burden of proof in a civil action is much less onerous - i.e. probability rather than beyond reasonable doubt