ViaLogy, a service provider to global oil and gas exploration and production companies, hit a 52-week high after it announced an unnamed major oil and gas company had deployed the AIM-listed tiddler's patented QuantumRD processing technology. Not only is the identity of the customer secret, so is the location of the area where the technology is being deployed, and the value of the contract.
Oil and gas firm Sefton Resources said oil production at its California operations is now heading towards expected levels after remedial work on the wells. Production has increased to an average rate of 142 barrels of oil per day (bopd), reaching highs of 220 bopd in the past few days. In Kansas, the Leavenworth County pipelines are on schedule to flow first gas in the summer and expected to generate an additional stream of cash flow as well as increasing reserves. The company said 40-50 oil and gas well-bores for its re-completion programme have been leased, or are in the process of being leased or acquired, and that the leasing programme is being accelerated with the plan to double its acreage in in the region. Broker Northland Capital Partners responded to the update by downgrading the shares to 'add' from 'buy'.
Berkeley Mineral Resources, a mining and processing company, has received the official large-scale Mining Licence 6990-HQ-LML, which covers 703 hectares of its part-owned Kabwe mine in Zambia. Following clearance by the Zambian Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, Berkeley has now taken over the licence and plans to activate a Zambian government survey to peg and verify the land areas concerned, obtain an official pegging certificate, submit its revised Environmental Management Plan and then make an application to extend the licence for a period of 25 years.
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Coastal Energy has unveiled successful results at two appraisal wells at Bua Ban South in the Gulf of Thailand. Well A-05 encountered 20 feet of net pay and moved the lowest known oil down by 50 feet. Oil water contact was not made and further appraisal wells are required to further test the area. Well A-06 encountered 31 feet of net pay and 325 feet of reservoir. The well has been cased and will be utilised to test a multi-stage fracturing program once production facilities arrive in the third quarter, the firm said. The company said it is "extremely pleased" with the results. Once drilling begins the additional development wells, rates are expected to return to and exceed previous levels.
Afferro Mining has reported that the interpretation of the Akonolinga Iron Ore Project in Cameroon has revealed 25 magnetic anomalies. Two of these have been ranked as "high" targets due to their magnetic character and intensity. The anomalies will all be investigated further and a drill programme focused on high-grade targets is set to begin in the final quarter of 2012. An additional 3,498km of airborne geophysical survey work has commenced.
Premier Gold has raised £350,000 after the placing of 70m shares at 0.5p each, the majority of which were sold to institutional investors. On the day before the results of the placing were announced the shares had closed at 0.58p. The funds will be used to advance work at the Cholokkaindy gold project in Kyrgyzstan through an "aggressive exploration programme" which will include diamond drilling on two of the four gold prospects already identified within the licence. As a result of the share issue Premier now has just over 682m shares in issue.
Another miner on the cadge is West African diamond mining company Stellar Diamonds, which intends to raise £2m through a placing of 67m shares at 3p each, one-eighth of a penny below the mid-market closing share price of Stellar the day before the share issue was announced. The funds raised are to be used to advance the Droujba and Tongo projects. The newly issued shares represent around 23.6% of the enlarged issued share capital of the company. Meanwhile, the group is still talking to the government of Sierra Leone in order to satisfactorily resolve the Kono licence dispute.
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