anyone got any ideas about the block trades that went through today?

website: http://www.sterlingenergyplc.com/



weather: www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/084938.shtml?50wind120

SEY is short of big cash, as they have not sold their Gulf interests as they wanted. This does not matter too much, as they have farmed out a share of Kurdistan to Addax in return for reimbursement of siesmic work and the cost of drilling the first well - SEY is still left with 53.33%. - pity it is not more like 75% - but still OK.
Korean National Oil Co have "a back-in interest" of 25%.

I understand the SEY Kurdistan block is about 492 sq. kilometers, with several oil seepages on the surface. It is about one third the size of the Addax and the Hertiage blocks, but closer to the Kirkuk oil field. The block is said to be "on trend" with Addax Taq Taq oil field, and only about 50 kilometers from the giant Kirkuk sweet light oil field. It does looks very encouraging.

If SEY run out of cash in the future, it does not matter as their Kurdistan 53.33 % interest could be worth a fortune in its own right, and neighbours Addax / Heritage / Korean National Oil, may want to buy in. The block will have a value even if only the first well is drilled by Addax !

How does one value SEY ?? -- with a lot of guess work and a prayer ?

SEY market capitalisation is 40m at present, Heritage market capitalisation is 900m at present, this is known.
SEY have some small interests in Mauritania and large acerage onshore in the Gulf mainly for gas, and perhaps are drilling with Exxon offshore Madagascar this year ? Heritage are big in Uganda with Tullow oil and have other interests.
Heritage market capitalisation has gone up by about 300 m since the news about Kurdistan broke. Will SEY market capitalisation go up by - say 120 m for Kurdistan or 180 when market sentiment improves ? It's a guess.

Say a total of 160 m or somewhere around 7.2p per share by about the end of this year ?
- 400 % gain because of high gearing with present small market capitalisation ?

Refer also to Gulf Keystone " Investor Presentation Feb 2009" page 21 for picture of SEY block. As I see it - one needs to be a little patient with SEY and wait until later in this year, but a find in Kurdistan will transform things.

I have nearly one million SEY shares, bought before the crash and am holding on -

rekirkham Accountant and Barclays deZote Wedd Investment Analyst in 1980's .

rekirkham, were you any good at it?

Only I know a retired investment banker who has lost a packet of his own cash during the fiasco of last year, just would not listen to me a novice, in comparison.

And then there is this to consider.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/285e9c8c-2d43-11de-8710-00144feabd...


"US producers run low on energy to beat recession

...In recent months, there have been eight announcements of forced sales, bankruptcy filings and notices of possible filings, with the most recent warning coming from Edge Petroleum in March.

These are not immaterial companies: 56 per cent of US natural gas and 59 per cent of US oil is produced from companies with fewer than 20 employees, according to the Independent Petroleum Association of America, which has 5,000 members...

...The number of land rigs operating in the US has fallen by 1,000, or 48 per cent, since the October 2008 peak, he said - the steepest drop, on a percentage basis, since the 1980s oil crisis.

"We have seen 20,000 employees disappear in the last 90 days," Mr Mason said.

Texas, which produces nearly one third of US natural gas, and employs almost half the workers in the US oil and gas extraction industry, has just gone into recession."

I would guess that spells the end of any thought about selling the US assets."

Plus of course the unknown state of the banking facility which is why I have posted the above item here.

Comments?

Poo Bear - I am not always right, but hope to be right slightly more often than being wrong. Thanks for the information - most interesting about the USA.
SEY Annual Report is due out about 1 May - in about one week, and this should throw some light on the situation. Good luck, we all need it.

Good news, they have a back waiver on the loan RNS issued, no offence meant rekirkham.

Let there be light!

SEY on the rise again, it hit 2.50 yesterday hope it goes on up. Good volume today, slow but sure.

Any guesses what the takeout offer was?

It will hopefully pass 4p before any offer is made IMO

lizard
re - Any guesses what the takeout offer was?

The poor 3 monkey think you are taking the ....    

Just remember the US assets alone were worth 16 pence prior to the last dilution for survival.

We may get a shock here yet!

Positive
INDICATORS RISING with volume

Been a while since 33m shares traded. Majority buys?.

Well today is already 25M and is only 11.15am
rising nicely also to 2.15 / 2.18p at the moment

Early news today from HOIL, Kurdistan field close to it ..............

HERITAGE OIL ANNOUNCES A MAJOR OIL DISCOVERY WITH THE
MIRAN WEST-1 WELL TEST IN THE KURDISTAN REGION OF IRAQ

Heritage Oil Limited (LSE: HOIL), an independent upstream exploration and
production company, announces a major oil discovery in the Kurdistan Region of
Iraq and the completion of an initial test programme on the Miran West-1 well.
The results are summarised below:

Miran West structure estimated oil-in-place of between 2.3 to 4.2 billion
barrels
Recovery factor expected to be between 50% to 70% due to the highly fractured
nature of the reservoirs
From the pressure data recorded during testing management estimates flow rates
of between 10,000 to 15,000 bopd per well
Miran West-1 well has an estimated gross oil-bearing interval of 710 metres
Oil produced during testing was medium gravity (approximately 27degree
API),with low sulphur, a low gas-oil ratio and with no water
Miran West field development will be low cost and straightforward to
fast-track
Potential for trucking production for sale by year-end 2009
Success of Miran West-1 has significantly lowered the exploration risk of the
adjacent, similarly sized, Miran East structure


It was announced on 25 March 2009 that the Miran West-1 well had reached target
depth. Several drill stem tests (DSTs) were run over a gross interval of 500
metres, covering the three major producing reservoirs in the region: the
Shiranish, Kometan and Qamchuqua formations.

On the move UP today after starting weaker again, and loosing yesterday all the gains on the morning

Do we hang the flags out now???? actually got to 2.15p feel faint just looking at it.

Another good trading one volume of 38M

the third day with high volume

"Announcement Dr Ashti Hawrami
Minister for Natural Resources
Kurdistan Regional Government

8 May 2009

On behalf of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the KRG Ministry of Natural Resources announces that crude oil exports shall commence officially on 1 June 2009 from the Tawke Field, at an initial rate of around 60,000 barrels per day. This follows the completion of all the metering instrumentation and the tie-in of the field pipeline with the Iraq-Turkey main export pipeline at the border town of Fishkhabur."


http://www.krg.org/articles/detail.asp?rnr=223&lngnr=12&smap=02010100&anr=29333

Should stimulate a bit of interest in Kurdistan Oilers.

SEY is a dead company.

hlyeo98 is a dead loss. So what?

Further news today .....

Sun May 10, 2009 7:30am

* Iraqi Oil Ministry says Kurdish exports to begin
* Kurdish minister says received ministry permission

BAGHDAD/SULAIMANIYA, Iraq, May 10 (Reuters) - The Iraqi Oil Ministry will begin exporting oil from fields in semi-autonomous Kurdistan, an official said on Sunday, heralding a breakthrough in a bitter feud over control of Iraq's oil wealth.

Oil Ministry spokesman Asim Jihad told Reuters that once fields in the northern Kurdish region had been connected to the national export pipelines, "the Iraqi Oil Ministry will start exporting crude extracted from some oil fields in Kurdistan."

"These quantities will increase Iraqi export capacity, and all revenues will go to state coffers. The Ministry supports any steps to increase Iraqi output and export levels," he said, but declined to comment on when the exports would begin.

Jihad's comments came after the Kurdish natural resources minister said he had received a green light from Baghdad to begin the first official exports from Kurdish fields.

"Today I received an email message from the Iraqi Oil Ministry sending us their approval for the Kurdish government to export oil through the Iraqi pipelines to Ceyhan (in Turkey)," Ashti Hawrami told Reuters by telephone from outside Iraq.

On Friday the Kurdish government had announced that oil exports from its Tawke field would begin on June 1, saying they would start at an initial rate of 60,000 barrels per day (bpd).

It also said that 40,000 bpd of exports from another field, Taq Taq, would begin, travelling by truck and through an Iraq-Turkey export pipeline.

But there was no immediate confirmation from the Shi'ite-Arab led government in Baghdad, which has long called contracts Kurds have signed with foreign oil firms illegal and on Friday Jihad denied that permission had been granted for the Kurdish exports.

The oil feud is part of a larger dispute between minority Kurds and majority Arabs over resources, land and power that has held up national energy legislation and cast a shadow over a country struggling to emerge from six years of bloodshed.

Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani is facing increasing pressure to increase sluggish oil output, now around 2.3-2.4 million bpd, and turn around an industry in dire need of major investment after decades of sanctions, neglect and war.

On Sunday Jihad said there was a joint technical team, including Kurdish and Arab officials, that would conclude preparations for the launch of Kurdish oil exports.

Until now Baghdad's refusal to open the national pipeline to Kurdish oil exports has meant oil from Kurdistan, largely independent since 1991, has gone only to supply a small Kurdish market. Small amounts have been smuggled abroad.

Kurdish officials, who estimate reserves of at least 40-45 billion barrels in the area now recognised as Kurdistan, have meanwhile struck deals with firms including Toronto-listed Addax Petroleum (AXC.TO) and Norway's DNO International (DNO.OL), which is developing Tawke.