Argos Resources with exploration licences in the North Falkland Basin expects its shares to be admitted to trading on AIM on Thursday 29 July. Argos Resources has raised £22 million (£20.6 million net of costs) in a placing of new ordinary shares at 31 pence per share which will give the company a market capitalisation of £67 million.
OPEC member Ecuador says it will start renegotiating contracts with private oil companies as it moves to increase state control over the sector. Under the new hydrocarbons law, the current production-sharing agreements will be replaced by a flat fee.
Rockhopper Exploration (AIM: RKH) announced that on Friday early morning it had spudded Ernest 26/6-1 exploration well in the North Falkland Basin, the second well the British company is drilling following the successful discovery of oil in its Sea Lion prospect.
Rockhopper Exploration the only company so far to have announced the discovery of oil in Falklands’ waters is preparing to spud its second well in the North Falkland basin, the company announced in a release.
British Petroleum is to sell assets in Texas, Canada and Egypt, to part-fund the clean-up cost of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The oil giant said it had reached a 7 billion US dollars deal with US-based oil production firm Apache Corp.
A new US assessment of Venezuela's oil reserves could give the country double the supplies of Saudi Arabia. Scientists working for the US Geological Survey say Venezuela's Orinoco belt region holds twice as much as previously thought.
Argos Resources the latest company to announce it will begin oil exploration operations offshore the Falkland Islands was sent a letter by the Argentine embassy in London warning it “to abstain” from such activities otherwise “it will face legal actions”, according to reports in the Buenos Aires press.
Falkland Oil and Gas (FOGL) will press ahead with its drilling program offshore the Falkland Islands despite reporting that its Toroa F61/5-1 exploration well was dry. However FOGL, which is associated with Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP Billiton, said it will work first towards contracting a deepwater rig.
Brazil’s oil regulator ANP said it concluded its first test at the Franco offshore field, which holds the oil reserves that the government may sell state-controlled Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Petrobras, in exchange for new stock.
The first well to be drilled at the south of the Falkland Islands proved to be a disappointment, Falkland Oil and Gas Ltd, FOGL, officially announced to the London Stock Exchange.