http://www.falklands-oil.com/

http://www.rockhopperexploration.co.uk

http://www.argosresources.com/




Rockhopper was established in 2004 with a strategy to invest in and undertake an offshore oil exploration programme in the North Falkland Basin. It was floated on AIM in August 2005. Rockhopper was the first company to make a commercial oil discovery in the Falklands. Today Rockhopper is the largest acreage holder in the North Falkland Basin, with interests in the Greater Mediterranean region.

Rockhopper Exploration plc has been 'nominated' by Shares readers in the Best AIM Company Achievement category. The Awards ceremony is tonight.

Nominations are:

Blinkx plc
H&T Group plc
Hightex Group plc
Mulberry Group plc
Nautical Petroleum plc
Rockhopper Exploration plc

Shame there is not one for best moneyam thread!!!!

Best of luck for rockhopper as the board have ran a very good ship and and i think 2011 will be an even better year for them,lots of up upside in the future.

Summary of the GS note :

http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/22966/falklands-oil-exploration-will-be-an-important-focus-in-near-term-goldman-sachs--22966.html


Falklands oil exploration will be an important focus in near term Goldman Sachs

Friday, November 12, 2010 by Jamie Ashcroft


Goldman Sachs believe that the Falklands offer the best regional value

The Falklands will continue to be an important focus for European exploration and production (E&P) oil and gas investors in the near term, according to research by Goldman Sachs.

Goldman singled out the headline grabbing frontier play in a comprehensive note to clients, entitled: 50 E&Ps to change your portfolio.

Many investors will have been familiar with the key players since the group of companies clubbed together back in 2009 to take the Ocean Guardian drilling rig out to the remote area in the South Atlantic.


So far the North Falklands basin has been the most explored with Rockhopper Exploration (LON:RKH) and Desire Petroleum (LON:DES) drilling through most of 2010. The South Basin has been actively explored by Falkland Oil & Gas (LON:FOGL) this year, and Borders & Southern (LON:BORS) has plans to take a rig out there in Q4 2011.

There has also been a new addition to this hardy group of AIM oil explorers in recent months, with the listing of Argos Resources (LON:ARG). The company has been described by the cognoscenti as the last remaining entry into the Falklands because its assets are comparatively early stage meaning it still has some catching up to do with the rest of it peers.

Argos expects to start drilling in 2011.

Goldmans research was led by analysts Christophor Jost and Ruth Brooker.

Jost and Brooker claimed that the Falklands offer the best regional value among the various investment themes in the report.

On our estimates, the Falklands is the cheapest area, despite the good performance relative to the rest of the sector over the past 3-4 years, the analysts said.

That said, Goldmans analyst team highlighted that the 4 main explorers had been out-performing the rest of the sector even before a well was drilled in the south Atlantic.

The Falklands explorers saw c.75% relative outperformance vs the sector before drilling, Jost said.

The analyst added: The anticipation has proven justified in the north where Rockhoppers Sea Lion discovery has opened a new potential play, although the failure at Rachel highlights that risks remain.

Whilst the North Falkland basin has been the main focus of attention in recent months, Goldman emphasised that the trickier deep-water South Falkland basin may hold greater potential.

Despite FOGLs disappointment at Toroa, the southern basin offers higher potential upside than the partially de-risked northern play but with a higher geological risk,

Given a combination of high impact exploration and a proven basin in the north, we expect the Falklands to be an important focus for the European E&P investor in the near term.

We see value in all the Falklands players under our coverage ... all Falklands explorers look cheap on our estimates, the analysts wrote.

Although the re-rating potential is vast, the outcome is binary in the event of the basin being successful, the companies will re-rate, but the downside in Borders and Southern and Falkland Oil & Gas is large in the event of failure.

In reference to the North Basin the analysts add: Now that the Sea Lion discovery has flowed, the risk profile of the stock has reduced, in our view, and it is no longer such a binary call as its peers to the south,

Instead, we believe that the value is a result of the markets inefficiency in pricing in the value for the potential of a newly opened play.


Borders and Southern (LON:BOR)

The Goldman report - written before Borders and Southerns drill programme was set back until Q4 2011 - began coverage on the South basin explorer with a buy rating and a 12-month price target of 104 pence.

The analyst said that the high-risk, high-impact exploration has the potential to transform the stock. Once underway, two wells will be drilled.

In the event of the two prospects being totally de-risked, we believe that the stock could re-rate upwards to the tune of over 1,500%,

Failure, however, would result in significant downside in our view (potentially as much as 85%) unless there was sufficient encouragement for follow-on wells.


Falkland Oil & Gas (LON:FOGL)

The analysts said that the Falkland Oil & Gas story is not dead, as it initiated its coverage with a buy rating and a 12-month price target, of 200 pence, that implies 96 percent upside.

Falkland Oil & Gas was the first to break ground in the frontier play, and the unsuccessful Toroa well which failed to find any hydrocarbons - prompted farm-in partner BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) to pull out of the next exploration phase.

Goldman believes the stock is undervalued ahead of the next well.

The key catalyst will be the next well at Loligo success or failure will be the key driver of share price performance.

The analysts believe that success at Loligo would re-rate Falklands Oil & Gas.


Rockhopper Exploration (LON:RKH)

Goldman highlighted that the Sea Lion discovery fully supports the current share price. The analysts initiated its coverage with a Conviction Buy rating with a 12-month target set at 640 pence .

They believe that the Sea Lion discovery offers a significant opportunity.

The analysts expect exploration and appraisal drilling to be the key share price catalysts.

We believe that Sea Lion has partially de-risked the basin, meaning that Rockhopper has high visibility on a potentially transformational pipeline of lower risk drilling catalysts,

We believe that further appraisal drilling on Sea Lion could help to reduce the commercial risk on the asset and potentially increase the estimated volume of reserves.


Desire Petroleum (LON:DES)

Goldman began its coverage on Desire Petroleum with a buy rating and a 12-month price target of 197 pence.

We believe that Rockhoppers Sea Lion discovery has helped to de-risk Desires substantial acreage in the north eastern part of the North Falklands basin,

Desires acreage in this part of the basin amounts to over 1000 sq km giving it substantial running room to drill a significant number of potentially transformational wells over the next few years.

The analysts believe that successful exploration could increase Desires valuation by 6 times, however they cautioned that the downside could be close to 100 percent if no further discoveries are made in the basin.

Nevertheless the analysts state: We believe that the market tends not to be aggressive enough in valuing new basins after the initial discovery, and while we appreciate the risks involved, we are willing to give Desire value for exploration drilling out to 2013 in the area.

http://www.diamondoffshore.com/ourFleet/documents/November122010web.xls

Ocean Guardian one additional option well


International Semisubmersibles (26)
Ocean Guardian 1,500' Falkland Is. Current Contract AGR/Desire/ Rockhopper Nine firm wells plus one remaining optional well mid 240's mid Feb. 2010 early Mar. 2011

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

1/ Liz
2/ Sea Lion
3/ Ernest
4/ Toroa
5/ Rachel-1
6/ Rachel Sidetrack
7/ Rachel North

8/ Jacinta - tba
9/ Helen - tba

Plus one option left.

http://www.rockhopperexploration.co.uk/pdf/Rockhopper-Operational-Update-13-10-10-final-RNS-new.pdf


Diamond Offshore Drilling (UK) Limited, the owners and managers of the Ocean Guardian semisubmersible
drilling unit, which is operating in the Falkland Islands and is currently engaged in the
drilling campaign, has recently made a proposal to Rockhopper, at Rockhoppers request, for a
continuation of the drilling campaign under a new rig contract consisting of a possible three firm wells
and five options extension. The execution of any such contract with Diamond Offshore Drilling (UK)
Limited would be subject both to the deposit by the Company into an escrow account of significant
funds sufficient to cover the day rate and other obligations and to agreement on a form of contract
acceptable to both parties.

marky, yes, DOD has made an offer to RKH however as yet the offer has not been accepted.

RKH should also be in discussions with others about potential rig lease, I mean, you have to shop around to get the best deal.

"Advanced" discussions on the rig extension......



TIDMRKH

RNS Number : 2216W
Rockhopper Exploration plc
16 November 2010

?
Embargoed: 0700hrs 16 November 2010

Rockhopper Exploration plc

("Rockhopper" or the "Company")

Interim Results for the Six Months Ended 30 September 2010

Rockhopper Exploration, the North Falkland Basin oil and gas exploration
company, is pleased to announce its interim results for the six months ended 30
September 2010. The period under review has been the Company's most
operationally active to date. The Ocean Guardian drilling rig has been on hire
throughout and, with one exception, has been drilling either on the licences
that Rockhopper operates or has farmed in to.

Highlights of the period include:

� Sea Lion well spudded 15 April 2010 and declared an oil discovery on 6
May 2010

� $68.1m after expenses raised in June 2010 to fund an initial flow test on Sea Lion and provide working capital for other related technical work

� Successful flow test of Sea Lion oil discovery started on 16 September
2010, the first oil to flow to surface in the basin

� $67.9 million of resources available for exploration at 30 September 2010


Post-period highlights include:

� $325.7 million after expenses raised in November 2010

� Use of funds to include appraisal of Sea Lion oil discovery, drilling of
further exploration wells and acquisition of further 3D seismic data, as well as
commissioning of engineering studies to a produce a field development plan

� Signed two contracts in October 2010 with Polarcus Limited to acquire 3D
seismic across a wide area of the basin

� Company in advanced discussions with Diamond Offshore Drilling, the
owners and managers of the Ocean Guardian drilling rig, regarding a continuation
of the drilling campaign

Dr. Pierre Jungels, Chairman of Rockhopper, commented,

"The successful flow test of Sea Lion is a major step forward for the group and
has given us the confidence and momentum to raise the funds required to
undertake the work needed to reach a final investment decision on that prospect.
The recent fundraising enables us to progress both our appraisal of Sea Lion and
associated field development planning as well as the ongoing interpretation of a
wide area of the basin in order to identify further attractive exploration
prospects."

Anywhere around the 300p level must be good value, imo. Not far off that now.

Harry - it didn't trigger a buy @ 300 and seems to be moving up again this morning. Not sure what is driving it - unless it is delayed reaction to yesterday's rns

Nice interview to watch :


http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/stocktube/590/gill-leates-of-jm-finn-says-oil-around-the-falklands-has-the-potential-to-far-exceed-the-north-sea-.html


Gill Leates of JM Finn says oil around the Falklands has the potential to far exceed the North Sea

Wednesday, November 17, 2010


Gill Leates, manager of the JM Finn UK Smaller Companies Fund, confirms that the potential for opportunities in the waters around the Falkland Islands could be as much as 60bln barrels of oil, however it's likely to be sometime before it's proven. Gill also said that the outperformance of small caps over larger cap stocks is likely to continue as innovative companies produce good earnings growth.

DES, FOGL & RKH all up today, but on mediocre volume, so not expecting the rise to remain.

neither RKH nor DES have the luxury of earnings let alone profits!

You need to watch the interview cynic before you comment, she talks about a few things, one of which is the FI and another is small caps...........

9 brokers say strong buy and I agree.


http://www.h-l.co.uk/shares/shares-search-results/r/rockhopper-exploration-plc--ord-gbp0.01/research


Couple of muppets say "short to 30p" although they are silent muppets at the moment...... ;)

i have better things to do ..... if DES and/or RKH have genuinely hit the jackpot, then i am delighted and shall do very well out of it

.

Rumour has it they are doing some roadshows in the USA next week. Would not surprise given RKH has both Merrill Lynch/Bank of America and Goldman Sachs with "Strong Buy" ratings on the company.

Infatuation and objectivity tend to be mutually exclusive.

Hell what did you have for dinner blackdown!!!