Member Info for AlmaCogan

Good evening to all Rocky followers.

Today is World Book Day 2026, and just as Paul Drayton predicted, I am making a brief comeback to promote the first of three books that I have written for Pegasus. My publisher’s publicist has given me permission to post a link here to their website for information and pre-orders if anyone is so interested. The book will be on sale from 26th March.

I will probably be banned for doing this.

It’s called An Engineer’s Tale, and it contains 24 short stories or “vignettes” which add up to a full story. Some vignettes are true; some are embellished and some are figments of my imagination. It’s supposed to be pulp fiction and amusing, not a stale documentary. It’s not all about oil, but a lot of it is.

I have used a pen name “Billy Higginbottom”, and a lot of names are changed to protect the innocent. If you somehow recognise yourself, have a laugh about it.

Best wishes and prosperity to everyone, even Garbled and Chessman!

https://pegasuspublishers.com/books/all/an-engineer_s-tale

In his TR1 this morning he declared his voting rights were held by Platform Nominees, yet he tried to requisition a general meeting in his own name on the 5% rule. Schoolboy error. He is angry at being sacked and wants revenge. He needs a proxy letter from the Nominees to requisition the meeting.

His sharehokding nominee had to submit the requsition, not Craig himself. Hence invalid .

I’ve had a reversal of sentiment. The imagined feeding frenzy and UK news headlines never happened. After all of the Navitas manoeuvres of recent weeks, I’m starting to think that Rockhopper is looking like one of those 3-legged rescue dogs from Romania which is due for adoption by a nice family living in Golders Green.

Who would have thought that a great British mercantile adventure in the South Seas with Desire, Rockhopper, Falkland Oil and Gas, Borders and Southern, Argos Petroleum, and Premier Oil would end up being slowly eaten away by Israeli interests, supported by an Argentine president and follower of Judaism who seemingly lives in the garden tool shed at the Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires?

It seems like RKH had no hope of raising the equity portion of the required funding without Gideon saying, “stick this in your pipe and smoke it,” leading to an effective control of Rockhopper by Tel Aviv.

A takeover premium of 30% will get the SP back to where it was at the height of fizz, before the RNS landed with ifs and buts and maybes about the Final Investment Decision. No-one ever mentioned a “financial close” until then, did they? Lemmings jumped off the cliff.

I now don’t think RKH will ever see first oil.

There were already a Church and a Kingdom Hall in Stanley; perhaps a Synagogue might be coming too?

Don McLean’s song American Pie is the epitaph.

Tear me to pieces, but I walked away after the FID announcement, but I made useful money over the years.

I’ve emptied my trading account, and all my effort as a waning octogenarian is now focused on writing pulp fiction to entertain the wider public.

It was good fun though!

Love to you all. Live long and prosper.

Evening DonaldB

Good to hear your story about Roswell . It features in my forthcoming Sci -fi novel "The Martian Endeavour" , being published by Pegasus in 26!

BB3, production wells in Central North Sea take 3 months on average, but the North Basin is well understood and it will be a production line, so to speak.

BB3, it's like the Fermi Paradox. If there were potential partners out there, there would at least be some evidence or rumour, but it's as silent as an Arctic night and none has been observed.

No extra money or expertise or resource is needed , so why is a partner even wanted ?

In the most recent words of the operator in December 2025.

“Phase 1 of the development will ramp up significantly throughout 2026 and NPDP will open an office in Aberdeen early in 2026 to work in conjunction with its London base and its office in the Falkland Islands. This initial stage consists of drilling of 11 subsea wells tied back to a redeployed floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel. Phase 2 will add a further 12 wells, expected within three years of first oil.”

===============================

6 wells in Phase 1 pre first oil, 5 post first oil, and 12 for Phase 2.

So, it’s a continuous 4 year drilling programme of 23 wells at 2 months a well, taking us from H1 2027 to H1 2031 when Navitas expects the phase 2 wells to be online.

AIM Rule 29 requires companies to announce the admission of any new securities and to confirm the total voting rights in issue.

They didn't yet. That is the issue here, and the London Stock Exchange has leaked it for Monday.

EG777

I tried to call Sam today to get an explanation, but there was no-one in the office.

I'm just saying there will be an RNS on Monday saying ~200 million shares have been admitted to trading. I just think that will have an effect, it might be positive or negative, but not neutral

"Alma- yes, share ownership has been diluted "

Santos , share ownership has not yet been diluted. That is coming on Monday.

"Nothing happening? You just forgot about the cash raised and FID?"

That's history and baked in. The ownership dilution is coming on Monday. Just stop and think about it.

The London Stock Exchange is now, after hours, reporting a market cap of £594,820,000 at a SP of 72p, an increase of over 28% from earlier today. So, the placing shares must now have been admitted for trading on Monday without any formal RNS announcement today.

This chat board header is not showing the change, and neither is ADVFN.

What happens on Monday? Will this extra ~200M share dilution have no effect? You cannot magic up a 28% increase with nothing happening surely?

"My question is if I ask for the over subscribe option am I still guaranteed the number of shares awarded to me?"

Yes.

EG777, A Pedant’s View....

Something wrong here.

No RNS this morning and no new shares admitted to trading, despite the RNS on 22nd December saying, “Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the New Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM and admission is expected to become effective on or around 8.00 a.m. on 31 December 2025 (The Admission)”

This is different from the General Meeting Circular of 22nd August which said, “Admission becoming effective by not later than 8.00 a.m. on the fifth Business Day following FID [18th December 2025], (or such later date as may be agreed by the Company and Canaccord).

The General Meeting Circular made no mention of an event subsequent to FID, which the Admission actually depended upon, namely a Financial Close. A pedant lawyer might argue that the shareholders were not provided with the full facts when they voted to approve the Conditional Placing and Open Offer. Perhaps Cannacord has delayed it?

One of the AI engines says:

“The conditional placing and the open offer are tied together in the same shareholder approval and the same admission timetable. The 53p placing shares cannot be admitted until the open offer closes and settles.”

Very odd.

The dilution might take some time yet.

Anyway, HNY to everyone except Garibaldi

Interesting situation on Wednesday morning with circa 200 million shares being admitted to trading on AIM.

So, on Wednesday, even if none of the placees sell their 53p shares, an anomaly arises. Either the market cap miraculously increases by 30% with an unchanged SP, or the SP falls by around 20% to 56p with an unchanged market cap. But the proceeds of the placing have increased the balance sheet net asset value (NAV) of the company by 60%. Does that increase in NAV swamp the dilutive effect of the increased number of shares?

Is the upcoming admission effect priced in at 70p? It’s a 20% drop from the 90p seen twice recently, so perhaps it is.

If the SP remains unchanged at around 70p it’s a remarkable testament to the resilience of this share. Does sentiment outrun maths?

"Aren't you forgetting the monthly/annual repayments of the debt capital itself which, together with the former interest payments, will surely outweigh the lost revenue from Castrol?"

Debt repayment is not an expense which appears in the P&L account, interest is, so the group profit still goes down. Cannot confuse cash flow with profit.

$6 billion of debt reduction translates into circa $300 million of reduced interest expense. But the flipside is the loss of $650 million EBITDA earnings from Castrol, so overall it reduces the bottom line group profit and won't result in any dividend bonus, share buy back or funds for investment. The debt burden goes down by 23% and that's a good start but the renewable business should have been sold instead, even at a loss if necessary.

Browne's canard "Beyond Petroleum" must be scrapped and BP renamed as good ol' Barry Obama always said it was at Macondo: "British Petroleum"

"Total net proceeds to bp of c.$6 billion, including accelerated dividend payments, will be fully utilised to reduce net debt. "

Not for dividend, buy backs of investments.