New World Oil & Gas down despite positive statement

New World Oil and Gas, a company focused on Belize and Denmark, suffered a decline in its share price on Thursday morning, despite delivering a generally upbeat statement.

The group said that operations in Belize are continuing as planned, with the Blue Creek #2A drilled to a measured depth of 10,195 feet as of January 7th. The proposed measured depth of 11,880 feet is expected to be achieved on or before January 20th.

In the statement the group said: "The drilling of Blue Creek #2A has been deliberately controlled at a slower rate than originally expected in order to maintain a gauge wellbore diameter that will maximize log quality. To date, this has proved effective, resulting in excellent log data quality."

In south west Denmark the 75 sq km 3-D seismic acquisition programme over the Jensen prospect, which has a prospective resource estimate of 48m barrels of oil, is over half way completed with all seismic lines surveyed and 55% of the 3-D survey recorded to date. The firm said that seismic operations for the prospect are expected to be completed by the end of January 2013.

In southern Denmark the group is in the final stages of the interpretation of the 161 sq km 2-D seismic acquisition programme which was completed on the Als Prospect in August 2012. Following this, and based on an updated competent person's report, the company will make a decision on whether to acquire additional 2-D and or 3-D seismic, or to propose drilling the Als prospect in 2013.

Chief Executive Officer William Kelleher said: "Drilling in Belize continues to make steady progress towards its objective thanks to the first class work of our operations team on the ground. We will soon be entering the targeted Y3 and Hill Bank formations where promising oil shows, along with the presence of live oil on the shakers, were observed while drilling the Blue Creek #2 vertical well.

"This is an exciting time for New World on a number of fronts. Not only will we soon find out if the first of a fully funded multi-well, drilling campaign in Belize has made a commercial hydrocarbon discovery, but we will also have the results of our latest seismic work on our Danish licences, as we look to continue to de-risk the multiple prospects we have already identified to drill-ready status."

The share price fell 5.63% to 8.38p by 12:56.

NR