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

Thanks, I should know that, being a holder of these stocks! Good to hear from you

Welcome Tonker.

I also hold ROC did hold Hardman till the t/o was announced and sold, I intend to buy Tullow but when it suits me, have no interest in Premier although they could be the next of the JVP to be taken over and will hold Sterling when I feel like it.

The latter is why I continue to track this stock however as I have previously said, I will buy for Madagascar.

In respect of Mauritania, Chinguetti seems to be experiencing traits similar to those discovered at Tiof, which is why that project was delayed.

I also believe that Woodside knew of such problems which is why they sold their Hardman stock at $1.75AUS a while back and also probably what caused the core of the Hardman Board to leave before Chinguetti came on line, and that included Ted Ellyard who was CEO, he left with ill health. All of that before Chinguetti came on line.

What next there?

We will wait and see.

SWW,

SEY only expect one more lift between now and Xmas, so there may be minimal impact to their expected revenues.

SEY made three lifts between February and June, as reported in the interims recently, and have made another two since, with one more due before the period for the finals closes Dec 31st.

BIG OPPORTUNITIES IN SMALL-CAPS

Some oil and gaz companies will try to mix oil services with production
although these are comparatively rare.............
Sterling Energy generates $2.5million a year from the gulf of Mexico pipeline
that it operates at an annual cost of $800.000

SOURCE: Current Investor Chronicle

Well, oil services is not doing badly for SEY apart from the oil production.
the little fish will fly.

georgetio - no doubt, eventually.

Andy, this gyrating between 30k and 35k bopd has me thinking that there is something not right still with the extraction equipment or the location of the Chinguetti production wells. We know the northern wells are shut in now, which means the fluctuations are from the 4 southern production wells.

I understand that the production wells only have a relatively short shelf life a matter of a few years, so the sooner they are replaced the better.

You are correct in your statement that it will have little effect on revenues this financial year now, in this case it's the longer term that will have reduced revenues, by which time, other explorations will hopefully have either produced something to take the focus away from Mauritania, which is not the next biggest oil province after all imo.

When you look at what else is being drilled in other licenses, i.e. Dana drilling block 7 and 8, they target potential trillions of cubic feet of gas potential and find..........nothing or nothing much. Of course thats not a big problem to Sterling as they currently have no interest.

Or do they?

Sterling wait on Banda gas being turned into revenue, this is not likely to happen unless enough other gas is found other than Pelican to warrant an LNG plant.

So each gas duster does delay that event and impact albeit in a minor way on future revenues.

No, the best areas seem to be the PSC A and B blocks and so far, and Chinguetti and Tiof have sand problems. Tevet is a small but useful find having two main zones of oil which can be extracted when tied back to Berg Helene. That is pencilled in forl 2009

It's just as well that Sterling has this agreement with a major free carry, because if they hadn't, they would be continually going to shareholders for cash.

I should think the Mauritanian Government are far from pleased with their returns.

Just as well they are taxing the JVP partners really.(around 50% IIRC I saw figures for from a Hardman Brochure). This is the difference between Sterling and the JVP because as I understand it, Sterling get their royalty untaxed apart I stand to be corrected there.

Given also that the Mauritanian Government are repaying the loan, (which ever way you want to see it I see it as a loan), there is revenue shrinkage for the Mauritanians and revenue growth for Sterling.

Sterlings EPS of 0.34p is set to grow, albeit irrelevant at the moment but at least it is a plus.

Meantime we sit and wait for a production decision for Tiof, which should get a decision along with Tevet anytime soon.

The best thing Fusion Oil did was to sell off their slice of the field for a percentage of royalties. It did not seem a good decision at the time, but it certainly does now.

Okay so whats left this year in the drilling campaign?

Aigrette, where Sterling has no interest, it would be nice to see something useful from that which is targeting 0.6 TCF of gas, (they hope).

Chinguetti 18

The next round will be next year from July onwards.

All this with the background of gas production from the GOM, a very useful cushion which continues to grow

Interesting isnt it?

sorry to be a day late but I reckon soaking your conker in epoxy resin should produce a winner, or a nasty headache. Should settle the argument.

Opening very weak today, 16.75p mid.

From advfn - yes I do go there, I even post there now!

deanroberthunt - 11 Oct'06 - 19:54 - 10558 of 10565


what one should consider is irrespective of the Ching issues/downgrade, this company is still looking at a minimum profit this year circa 15m, probably rising to 22m+ next year, with just the current producers.......and all that for a MCAP of 240m.......you get the rest for free, and thats some free, flippin 8 wells to come in next 9-12 months and the rest! + stake in Forum!

Anyone can find fault in anything if you look hard enough, but the figures speak for themselves, just one decent find and this becomes ridiculously undervalved and its mega re-rating time.......would I accept 26p, would I hell, i wouldn't accept 30p or 32p either........if this starts pushing the envelope with 30, 40, 50m profits (forecast) then 240 MCAP is silly season!

what would I take if someone wanted all my shares tomorrow, well I'd probably faulter @40p.....but thats just my opinion......

My point is, this does not matter at the moment.

I think this partly the reason for drag performance of SEY lately:

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,20565336-3122,00.html

R88ave,

This has nothing to do with SEY.

If teh market has dropped SEY's price because of this, then I would expect a rapid recovery when this is realised.

Instead of talking about Ching decreases in production, we should be talking about Ching increases in production. As stated before Ching 18 is one of the next wells to be drilled when the Atwood Hunter has finished its current well, so it will be drilling the first of the remedial wells soon enough. As I said before, Sterling were ahead of budget even with Ching production cut by half because of the high oil price. By the time of their next lift the oil price will be back up again and we will have the minimum increase of 10,000 bopd from the first remedial well to look forward to. Even the news story about wrong doings by Woodside in Mauritania states that there will be three remedial wells to improve production and the long term field plan always included further stages of drilling to optimise production.
With regard Kurdistan, I feel that the thing holding up a PSC announcement is that Sterling want a contract that will be honoured throughout Iraq. We have had Sterling saying they have made excellent progress on talks and we have had the Kurdistan government saying that they are ready to announce deals. So as long as we can have a cast iron deal, then an announcement cannot be far off.
Yesterday PM`s in Iraq approved the federal law allowing self governing regions of Iraq, and that can only strengthen Sterlings case in Iraq. Any deal is also covered by rule 141 of the constitution making any deal uncontestable in court. The bottom line is that Kurdistan are not going to be held back by Bagdad, and have already warned Bagdad that self rule and the ability to do deals on new oil contracts is part of the constitution and that any medling by Bagdad will result in a re think in Kurdistans membership of a federal Iraq.

Taken from Oil Barrel, the figures quoted for possible oil in place on Sterlings licences are truly staggering.

Sterling Energy, however, does do high risk high reward. This is a company that has grown substantially since joining AIM in 2002: the 2003 acquisition of Fusion Oil & Gas, which gave the company a promising spread of assets across Africa, was followed in 2004 by the purchase of producing assets in the Gulf of Mexico and, importantly, the breakthrough deal with the Mauritanian government that gave Sterling what amounts to an 8 per cent indirect interest in the producing Chinguetti oilfield.

It is the contribution of Chinguetti, despite its well-publicised production problems, that helped Sterling post some record financial results for the first six months of 2006: turnover was up 263 per cent and net profits up 158 per cent as the five cargoes lifted to date from Chinguetti netted the company around US$53 million.

The oil in place [at Chinguetti] is the same but its become clear its a more complex reservoir, said chief executive Harry Wilson, who refuted rumours that the Mauritanian government is trying to renegotiate the contract terms. A major review [of the field] is underway by Woodside and the results should be ready in the first quarter.




Harry Wilson fields questions from the floor on Chinguetti

The problems on the field have led to a reserves downgrade. We are hopeful there will be no further downgrade but theres no guarantee, said Wilson. He stressed, however: Chinguetti is important to us but its not all this company is about. And when answering questions from the floor about the impact of Chinguettis production problems, Wilson pointed out that from the rise in oil prices has largely offset the production shortfalls.

Sterling also enjoys production from the Gulf of Mexico, where it has a very active drilling programme planned. One well is drilling now and three more are on the books for the next six months with the potential to double reserves and production. The Thunder Stud prospect, for example, has potential upside of 1.5 tcf and is classed as moderate risk. Whats more, if successful it could be onstream within a couple of months ensuring a quick return on investment.

But for Sterling, the real focus is exploration. Production is a high yielding annuity business, which is nice to have but its not going to make the company, said Wilson. You need to explore.

Unlike Antares, the company is looking for high risk, high reward projects - but it wants to undertake this kind of wildcatting using other peoples money. This is done by farming out to other players: in Madagascar, for example, where the structures could hold up to a billion barrels, Sterlings costs are largely carried by farm-in partner ExxonMobil. Its the same in West Africa: Premier Oil, for example, will carry Sterling in the drilling of the Themis well offshore Gabon, which could net the company some 10 million barrels.

Sterling is also prepared to take on political risk. It has signed an MoU to explore in Kurdistan and is currently in negotiations with the Kurdistan regional government about turning this into a PSC. Given the current political and security situation in that part of the world, investors are likely to regard this as one for the long-term. In all, it was an interesting and well-received presentation that kept delegates hooked and eager to know more - despite the lure of the ever popular oilbarrel.com lunch waiting downstairs.

Stockdog LOL :-))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

SWW good post nice to get inside your head for a change. Don`t let Fido wind you he hasn`t come to terms that thier is a civil war going on in Iraq never mind the fears of Iran, Turkey. Have Turkey removed thier troops from the border yet?

The only thing I would ask you to consider is Bakara`s Heron well spudded? targeting deep plays. read link below. a new dimension?????????????

Tevet 2

with that said back to sparring gents. Fido you will lose to SWW he is playing so far.

Regards

:-)))

Stella strikes again

Hello Square.

Nice to see you posting here.

I did not know you knew Stella too?

In respect of Fido, I dont think I need do anything to be honest.

People know me as a poster as evidenced by comments here and elsewhere plus email's recieved, and will have made their own minds up.

He has lost respect.

At the end of the day, it's was only words.

I would guess that I am not too far wrong in assuming he is working on a loss with Sterling, which will have caused him to strike out like that. If he bought in the 30's, it will be uncomfortable.

Bakara`s Heron well spudded - yes I saw that, I'll look at that later today. Have you still got my email if you need it?

good morning seagoon ..... all well with you i trust ...... longish bike ride for me today to work up an appetite for a good lunch at an ace place in the Chilterns

Hello cynic, that could be a long bike ride.

Here is a site with a map so you can find you way home again.

http://www.chilternsaonb.org/sites.asp?type=2

Lots of yellow lollipops on the way

delightful ride through the back lanes, though quite strenuous ..... Marlow, Frieth, Wheeler End, West Wycombe, Saunderton, Lacey Green, Princes Risborough, Bledlow Ridge, Radnage, Sprig's Alley .... it's only about 25 miles, but some quite serious climbs, but the lunch made it all very worthwhile (Sir Charles Napier - highly commended) ..... The "girls" met us up there, so we put the bikes on the back for the journey home.

From TMF "Looks to me like Chinguetti is in serious decline. According to WPL's latest Quarterly Q3 Activities Report [ http://tinyurl.com/y33997 ] production is substantially down over Q2:

Q2/06 41549bopd
Q3/06 30985bopd

Quarterly decline 25.4%

We also know that average production was as follows:

July 35068bopd
Aug* 33018bopd *[Aug 1-22 only]

This implies that the production average for Aug 23 through September 30 was only 26593bopd

due to partial pressure depletion of a portion of the reservoir


so looks like we could easily be under 25kbopd now!!!

At this rate we'll be sub 20kbopd in the not too distant future.

No wonder Hardman have recommended the Tullow offer !

xxnjr

For those scepitics amongst us, this poster holds shares in members of the JVP (as I do), and has no axe to grind.

http://boards.fool.co.uk/Message.asp?mid=10230461&recscode=2

Sterlin have moved up rapidly early this morning Oct 26th.
Is there an offer from Tullow or what?

well spotted .... volume is exceptionally heavy too .... already 6/7 million when average is only 7.5 million all day