Epic : AEX

Aminex PLC is an established upstream oil and gas company, listed on the London and Irish Stock Exchanges, which has operated internationally since 1991.

Aminex produces oil and gas in the USA and has ongoing exploration activity in Tanzania, North Korea. Madagascar, Kenya and Egypt. Aminex also owns AMOSSCO Ltd, an international oilfield service, supply and logistics company.


Main Web Site : http://www.aminex-plc.com

Amossoco Web Site : http://www.amossco.com/

Dec 2007 Company Presentation : Link to PDF File



Sept 07 - Operations Detail & Update : In post 2

28th Sept 07 - Oil Barrel Write Up : In post 6

North Korea Info : In post 3

Planned Drilling :

Commencing late Oct 07 (or early Nov) - Kiliwani-1 - Tanzania
to be followed by second Tanzania well.

Commencing Nov 07 - West esh el Mellahah Block 2 - Egypt



* Note : AEX is fully listed (not AIM) and so can be ISA'd


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Plus : oil and gas prices rising...

I'm ranting on here...because I'm a fan of this stock...North Korea is also on the horizon...AEX is going to have to the pick of the best drilling sites out there as long as no diplomatic rows start again....so this little gem has big, big potential....

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Excellent results, news and a good show at Likonde-1 as well. Cannot complain too much.

For a wildcat well (in all effect as its the first ever in the area) they hit reservoir with traces of oil and gas, so it was there at sometime.

Case now of rechecking the seismic, checking migrations paths and well number 2 should hit a decent amount of oil fingers crossed.

Other news on Shoats farm in potential, North Korea and Tanzania gas is good, and even WEEM is positive.

All in all very good and we should see some buying of AEX after the holiday weekend.



Broker comments on Drill and Results :

http://www.davy.ie/Generic?page=MorningNews2

http://www.davy.ie/Generic?page=MorningNews5

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I get the feeling that a lot of people are selling for tax year end lots of stocks and now are going to spend at least 30 days talking the stocks down before they jump back in........... LOL :)

Same with AEX, they sold today to lock in the profits from the rise from 6p to 7p and some will spend time on the BB's now talking AEX down - as they want to buy back in 30 days.

NAV on the US assets alone is well over the current price, and everything else is in for free.

Merrill have added 10p a share on to the NAV for Tullow following Likonde-1 result and its implications for the Rovuma licenses.




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Update from Davy (www.davy.ie). 21p per share "risked valuation" and they agree with Merrill's view on Tullow, that the Likonde-1 results add value :


Likonde-1 well bodes well for oil in Rovuma Basin

The news that residual oil was found in the Likonde-1 well in the Rovuma Basin onshore Tanzania is a major and significant outcome for Aminex in particular and East African exploration in general.

Aminex has a net 37.5% stake in Likonde and has been an active participant in East Africa for some time. While the result is not conclusive, it points to the presence of oil in the Rovuma Basin.

Data will now be re-interpreted, with the next well likely to be in early 2011.
Results for year show progress in most areas

In 2009, Aminex financed and set up its participation in drilling programmes in East Africa, Egypt and in the US. It raised $15.3m to finance its activities.

It was also active at the corporate level, increasing its stake in the Nyuni licence (+10%) offshore Tanzania and reenergising
its involvement in North Korea.

Fiscally, the group recorded revenues of $7.8m and a pretax loss a shade under $3m. Year-end cash was $11.7m. Valuation remains unchanged

We value the group at 21p per share with the risked valuation of the Rovuma campaign accounting for 7.7p per share. This is unchanged. If anything, the exploration
proposition has been improved.

Elsewhere, the group continues to make steady progress too. Value catalysts include the commercialisation of its Nyuni licence gas discovery offshore Tanzania and further
progress in the US.

Aminex is a pure exploration company with the inevitable share price volatility that goes with this mantle. But it has stuck to its guns in East Africa and could be close to making a major breakthrough in valuation.

I stay put anyway. Lots to come here

http://www.oilbarrel.com/nc/news/display_news/article/aminex-suffers-as-likonde-1-is-deemed-a-technical-success-but-commercial-failure/1169.html

April 06, 2010

Aminex Suffers As Likonde-1 Is Deemed A Technical Success But Commercial Failure

It wasnt the Easter surprise Aminex investors had been hoping for. Shares in the London-listed E&P slumped to 12 pence before the Easter break as the market digested the news from the Tullow Oil-operated Likonde-1 well in the onshore Ruvuma Basin of Tanzania, an area which Aminex has long touted as the possible company-maker in the portfolio.

FTSE 100 player Tullow announced on Thursday that Likonde-1 was to be P&A after failing to find commercial hydrocarbons. Yet this headline result, which accounted for the slide in the Aminex share price, doesnt tell the whole story as the well is being hailed a technical success, finding more than 800 feet of reservoir-quality sandstones with evidence of residual oil and gas. The well was drilled to a total depth of 3,647 metres, at which point the drill was terminated due to high gas influx.

Tullow, which described the well as encouraging, has a 50 per cent interest in the 12, 360 sq km licence, alongside Aminex, which may see its 50 per cent interest diluted to 37.5 per cent if its farm-in partner, AIM-quoted Solo Oil, exercises its option to earn a 12.5 per cent interest by participating in the second commitment well on the block. The timing of that second well is still up for debate as the technical teams get to grips with the well data and fine tune their regional geological model in order to select the next drilling location.

Aminexs chairman Brian Hall is certainly hoping the gap between the first and second wells wont be too long, saying he anticipated fast-tracked follow-up exploration activity. Too long a delay and the company would effectively be mothballing what remains one of its more promising projects, despite the commercial failure of the well. As Hall put it: Net reservoir sands of over 800 feet encountered, coupled with logged and physical evidence of both oil and gas, mean that Likonde-1 represents a major step forward in establishing the oil potential of the under-explored Tanzanian Ruvuma Basin.

Analyst Job Langbroek of Dublin-based stockbrokers Davy described the well result as a major and significant outcome for East Africa exploration in general. Likonde-1 demonstrates that a working petroleum system exists in the region and that oil was present in the structure drilled. It may be that the Likonde-1 well drilled a trap that was imperfectly formed. But evidence of residual oil both from side wall cores and from logging is evidence that if the right combination of sand, trap and structure is found, an oil discovery is very feasible, said Langbroek.

Others may be more churlish in their analysis, pointing out that the well was delayed after Tullow declined Aminexs favoured drillsite in favour of the Likonde prospect, which it reckoned carried the best chance of success. The fact this favoured prospect didnt work out may not bode too well for the other identified prospects on the block and may well see Tanzania slip down Tullows priority list after all, the FTSE 100 company has plenty of other projects to keep it busy in Africa, among them world-class finds in Ghana and Uganda.

But, as many an investor will attest, exploration comes with no guarantees. Some may remember Aminexs last drilling campaign in Tanzania, when the geologists dead cert prospect proved a dud, again sending the share price into a tailspin, while a supposed also ran hit, to everyones surprise, gas. That well was Kiliwani North, Aminexs 2008 gas discovery.

Likonde-1 is a disappointment but it has proved evidence of oil the Holy Grail of the hitherto gas-prone East African Margin as well as deep, high pressure gas. Those are the positives investors will have to take from this exercise while they await news of the timing and location of the second commitment well. Aminex hinted in its 2009 results that the second well would drill in the next 12 months but that could mean 2011, which will seem a long way off for investors smarting from the recent price slump.

More positively from Tanzania, it looks like the company could soon have some forward movement to report with the commercialistion of its 40 bcf Kiliwani North discovery in the Nyuni licence. Kiliwani North lies just 3 km from the production infrastructure for the adjacent Songo Songo gas field but the plant would need to be expanded to accommodate the Aminex gas: the London company hopes a long-running planning deadlock will be resolved shortly to enable that expansion to go ahead so the Kiliwani North gas can find its way to the expanding gas market in Dar es Salaam. With this bottle-neck resolved, Aminex would then have every incentive to chase down the additional prospects on the Nyuni licence, where the gas tally could exceed 1 tcf.

News of the Likonde-1 well result came as Aminex recorded 2009 revenues of US$7.8 million and a pre-tax loss of just under US$3 million. The company, which ended the year with cash of US$11.7 million, also reported that it has extended its WEEM-2 licence in Egypts Eastern Desert until September 2012, is still testing a well on its promising Shoats Creek property in Louisiana and has found a farm-in partner for its high risk entry into North Korea. All news, however, was overshadowed by the Likonde-1 result and investors will be keen to hear when the second well is to drill in order to keep some momentum behind the East Africa campaign.

Investors Chronicle View

hhttp://www.investorschronicle.co.uk/


Sensible strategy at roving aminex.

Created: 6 April 2010

Written by: Nigel Bolitho

Over the past decade, aminex has acquired energy exploration rights in 10 countries from North Korea to Madagascar. It likes to gain first mover advantage even if it subsequently gives up acreage as in Madagascar and Russia.

But the business also has two steady cash flow producers: an equipment sourcing division ...........

...............But what is so exciting about aminex is its drilling prospects. And, perhaps surprisingly, short term the best are in the US where formally nodding-donkey type fields are receiving a big makeover via the drilling of much deeper wells. Perhaps the best prospect is Shoats Creek in the swamps of Louisiana where deep drilling to over 10,000 ft might hit the fabled Gulf of Mexico Wilcox sands. And, although the drilling of Likonde-1 to over 3,600 metres in southern Tanzania on the Mozambique border (aminex now holds a 38 per cent interest in this venture) found little oil, it did discover 800ft of reservoir rocks.


IC View:-

BUY - Aminex has a sound explorer-cashflow producer business model and the shares are now a BUY.


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LIBC are offering to BUY at 9.75p.

But KBC are willing to sell at 13p.


Its what I call an order book, and looking at the top and bottom of it....... LOL :)

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mnamreh,

re your last:
if you have time/inclination could post edited highlights [or the whole thing if short] please as i dont go on iii.

regards
Alex

Post from III :


Wed 09:22 Email to Aminex and their reply Invest4Value 27

I thought i'd grab the bull by the horns and email Aminex to get their views on when the next well is likely to be drilled in Tanzania. I emailed them yesterday and by the evening, i'd already got a reply. My email and their reply are shown below:

_____________________________________________________________


Subject: Follow-up Exploration activity in Tanzania

Good Afternoon,

Im a shareholder in Aminex and am interested in getting an update on Aminexs plans for a 2nd drill in the Ruvuma basin? I appreciate this well is being drilled by Tullow in conjunction with Aminex, but I was wondering whether you have any information regarding which quarter the well is likely to be drilled, or failing that, any indication of when news will be available? I note from Aminexs RNS on Likonde-1 that Brain Hall commented that further exploration activity is anticipated to be fast-tracked so Im just trying to get a better understanding of what that means.

Any information you can give me would be most appreciated.

Many thanks for your assistance,

Regards,
_____________________________________________________________


Thanks for this inquiry. There is a lot of evaluation to be done on L-1 and a wealth of data to work on. Like all these first wells in a frontier area L-1 was full of surprises, mostly good though. We have to do further seismic reprocessing and possibly further seismic acquisition too. We are of course in Tullows hands on this one but confident that they will make good progress. My best estimate is that we will have drilled a second well by sometime during Q1 2011, which would be quite a fast track although it may not seem like that to you! It could be sooner but it is hard for me to be too precise, because, for instance we are still waiting on analysis of various kinds of samples etc. from labs and very much still at the planning stage for the way ahead.

L-1 did not get the result we hoped for but it is a very exciting play indeed and Tullow a really good partner to have because they get after these things!

Best regards,

Brian Hall
Executive Chairman
Aminex
______________________________________________________________


I like Brian's reply for a couple of reasons:

1) It came from Brian himself (Executive Chairman) rather than from some Investor Relations clerk. I think that is a very nice touch and shows that they value their private investors.

2) Brian is clearly still very excited by the prospects for Tanzania. There is obviously much work needed to be done in terms of seismic re-processing, lab tests etc, but the fact that Aminex still sound so confident about the future prospects for Tanzania, does fill me with confidence.

Quite a frank and candid reply from Brian which I liked. A drill in early 2011 fits in with my initial thoughts of when the next drill was likely to be, although as he says "it could be sooner". I also like the fact that Brian comments that Likonde-1 was full of surprises "mostly good though".

I'm definitely staying in Aminex for the long term. Ignoring Tanzania for a moment they have so much going on over the coming months. To my mind there has probably been a large seller over the past couple of weeks or so, hence the general drip down in sp (together with the news of L-1 of course), but once they are out of the way, and we get updates on Shoats Creek, Egypt, North Korea etc, I think we will start to see solid and sharp gains in the sp.

These are just my opinions of course, but good luck to all...

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thanks guys a bit of team work goes a long way.
Much appreciated
Alex