Resources round-up: Roxi, Aurelian, SolGold and SacOil

Roxi Petroleum, a Central Asian oil and gas company, said drilling of the well NK7 Galaz contract area has reached a total depth of 1,360 metres and preliminary interpretation indicates that the well encountered oil bearing zones. Once the evaluation work led by its partners is complete, perforation intervals will be selected and testing will be carried out by work-over rig.

Aurelian Oil & Gas has released a competent person's report on the hydrocarbon sites in Poland, Romania and Slovakia in which it has an interest. At Siekierki in Poland, where the company holds a 90% net working interest, contingent resources are estimated at 71.4bn cubic feet (cf) net to Aurelian on the low estimate category. The highest estimate is 1,028bn cf net to the company. Across all three projects, a proven 36.5bn standard cf of gas are attributable net to Aurelian, 142.2bn scf are probable and 415.7bn scf are possible. A proven 2.5m barrels of oil and liquids are proven, 9.5m are probable and 27.8m are possible. Aurelian's contingent resources post tax are valued as €364m.

SolGold's wholly-owned Rannes project has reduced its resource estimate, which now includes resources in the indicated and inferred categories, representing better defined and lower risk resources. The overall estimate has been reduced from 25.5m tonnes at 0.6g/t (grammes per tonne) gold and 15.9g/t silver to 18.7m tonnes at 0.5g/t gold and 16.9g/t silver. The group said 34% of the resource is now in the indicated category, while 66% remains in the inferred category. "Whilst the headline number for Rannes has been revised, development and application of the new geological model has delivered a more robust resource estimate," the firm said. The company remains confident of reaching its target of two million ounces of gold equivalent.

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SacOil has said it accepts the findings of a public censure from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) relating to the sale of an intangible asset. The company has consequently appointed Ernst & Young to advise on future complex transactions, saying that "the accounting treatment of intangible assets is a complex and opaque issue that has been the subject of global debate". The censure relates specifically to the disclosure of headline earnings per share in the trading statements, which arose from a differential accounting treatment of the group's intangible assets.

NR