.

Just doing a little compare...

XEL - "core area" of 22 million recoverable barrels of heavy crude. Plenty of upside. License upside perhaps 200 million recoverable barrels. Fiscal terms ok taking into account special tax incentives for heavy crude. British territorial waters. No license issues.

Market cap over 350 million GBP.

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

RKH - "core area" of 155 million recoverable barrels of medium crude in 1 lead. Plenty of upside. License upside perhaps 4 billion recoverable barrels. Fiscal terms very good. British territorial waters. No license issues. 100% owned and operated.

Market cap of 564 million GBP.



If XEL is cheap at the moment then RKH is an absolute bargain verging on the side of being ridiculously cheap.

do i detect rationalisation? .....

who said XEL is cheap at the current level?
though XEL's oil is unfashionable heavy, it is at least easy to bring ashore for refining once it starts to flow and, though i'm happy to be contradicted, the bentley field is already strongly indicated (proven may be too brave) to be very substantial indeed

on the other hand, RKH has indeed found good quality crude at sealion, but so far, no one but no one has found any more - some not even that good! - and even RKH has not yet found any more than their initial discovery ..... while something of a side issue, bringing FI crude ashore will be a very expensive operation

in conclusion, what is cheap now could easily turn out cheaper later!

Both companies probably want to proceed with development and production, before going for exploration wildcat wells again, .....indeed RKH will get the Sealion discovery well on its way for production together with all the complications...(farm in for production, funding etc...) sorted out before going for loads of exploration wells again. I presume though : that sort of activity will start again long before the first oil flows but they will have all Sealion issues well cared for and the imminent cash flows (one to two years) as a safety net for the costly business of drilling around the falklands. XEL will probably get more acreage sooner or later.
Both to me anyway are undervalued and like Proselenes says : the possibility of another great discovery is there and could send Rockhoppers sp up way past the 5 mark.

Interesting that MasterShanus over at III reckons "No drilling update" at TD.

He says no news until flow test complete, at which point a single update on everything.

Who knows...... ?

not him, that's for sure

Stock on loan figure.

Gradually rising, now up to 1 million. It was just 300K not so long ago.

New rig status report.

http://www.diamondoffshore.com/ourFleet/documents/May17web2011.xls

Shows the 3 well program of which the first well is ongoing (Ongoing contract)

Shows first firm well of 10 options (this is the newly announced firm well being the 1st of 10 options). (Future contract).


So of the remaining 9 options I would guess at least 2 for ARG, perhaps 3.

Perhaps 2 or 3 reserved for DES (if they can raise money).

So perhaps 3 more for RKH once the ongoing 4 are finished, as we now have 4 wells back to back of RKH drilling.

Stock on loan now up by 250K to now 1.15million.

So 250K sold yesterday were "borrowed" stock - thats quite a bit of the total volume given the very low volumes at the moment.

hmmmmmmmm

on loan stock of main interest to me

gl

ps why do pis still buy des?! i must be missing something - at least rkh has a half decent chance

The future.....



.

The dreaded/loved (delete as appropriate) "borgo" has predicted 91 is a magic number.

When 2 of the most important pieces of data are added together it equals 91.

So for those who despise him, look away.

For those that like a laugh and a bit of fun the expectation is that porosity + net pay = 91.

So could it be 21% porosity and 70M net pay ? (I would fall off my chair if it were).

Or is it 65% water saturation and 26M net pay (price would fall off a chair if it were).


Fun times - news Tuesday morning after the bank holiday Monday - enjoy the break.

I'm hoping for a good result here......perhaps I'm expecting too much from this company.....where has all the optimism gone that was on this board before ?....

Rf, it's all run it's course and the mob have moved on. Until RKH start to drill again, I can't see this attracting the speculative traders.

Harry, they are drilling now, and results due next week.

Yes, but it's only Appraisal / Environmental Assessment drilling and not a new project, so I don't think it will attract the rabble.

as a thicko, what is it hoped that an appraisal drilling will reveal? ..... i know what i think is hoped, but that is quite possibly or even probably incorrect, but for sure it isn't done as some entertainment just to pass a sunnny sunday

They are flow testing this time, so to my way of thinking the sp should take off....but I've said this before and it does the opposite....

Cynic, definition of Appraisal drilling '(Mining & Quarrying) (in the oil industry) drilling carried out once oil or gas has been discovered in order to assess the extent of the field, the reserves, the possible rate of production, and the properties of the oil or gas'.
I still think drilling new prospects attracts more speculative punters.

i suspect that as rf says, this latest is to establish flow and to try to glean further info re field extent ..... i don't care whether or not the lemmings leap on board beforehand, provided the result is perceived as positive

From the well spud RNS below :

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201105030700297465F

............The well is located just north of the Sea Lion 14/10-2 discovery well and 13 metres updip at top reservoir level. The well is designed to appraise the Sea Lion main fan reservoir and investigate hydrocarbon column and reservoir distribution. The location is 77 metres updip at top reservoir level from the recently drilled 14/10-4 appraisal well.

It is clear that they are drilling to test the Main Fan only. The last well found the Oil Water Contact and therefore defines they lowest level and now they are in the process of proving whether the upper levels also contain oil. When they have a bottom and top defined and both in contact they can call oil distribution across a very large area.

At this location the planned actions do not include Sea Lion Lower as it clearly states Sea Lion Main fan and at the updip top location.


From the RPS update on Sea Lion : http://www.mediafire.com/?z4pkvs9dd6l16b7

It is clear the average depth of the Sea Lion Main fan is expected to work out at 34.5 meters with thickening at down dip locations but potentially much thinner area's as well - hence an average of 34.5.

So this well is updip and therefore a figure in the 25 meter to 35 meter range should be hoped for, slightly below average expectation given this is updip and top of the reservoir, and not downdip where the much thicker net pay is expected to be.

I would be happy with 30 meters of net pay as a good result, anything more than 30 meters is very good.

As has been said we are not testing Sea Lion lower at this location and so net pay is purely about Main fan only, not a combination of Main and Lower as per the 14-10/2 well.

25 meters to 30 meters is ok.

30 meters to 35 meters is good given its updip and top location.

35 meters to 40 meters would be very good.

Above 40 meters and its an excellent result from this location for the main fan.