Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
Taking a guess that the experience of the new NEDs that the Doc chose to quote may be the most relevant (either because most recent, or relevant to UPL.
https://twitter.com/_amnesic/status/1169186353139073032?s=20
Dixon Wong
Tune Group companies, HSBC Bank Malaysia & Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi
... corporate finance, group strategy, driving organisational change and synergies across organisations for the group.
Tune having an NED on the BoD was not unexpected, although choosing now to have one (rather than any time over the last 18 months) may prove interesting.
Reasons for Mr Pitman's appointment may be less obvious....
Chris Pitman
Schlumberger Geoquest Inc., Qatar General Petroleum Co. & Petroleum Geo-Services ASA
...wide range of technical, commercial and senior management roles.
Schlumberger Geoquest :
Schlumberger GeoQuest provides a full range of software systems for every aspect of exploration and production, including seismic data modeling and interpretation, reservoir simulation and management, downhole and drilling visualization and supervision.
Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) :
PGS provides seismic images and 3D data describing the subsurface beneath the ocean floor, that oil companies rely on to find oil and gas reserves worldwide. Our business is data-driven. Using the latest technology, we provide a world-class MultiClient library, seismic acquisition, processing and imaging services.
Interestingly, Chris Pitman was also a director of PGS Pension Trustee. This company presently has a Steven Pitman as a director, just 16 months younger than Chris. Coincidence perhaps.
https://snipboard.io/KMd2tH.jpg
Update for end of August
51.8% with UPL Formally Named Holders, including...
6.5% with BoD
40.7% with Cornerstone Investors (Tune + NZ + Optiva)
22.7% is now held across 44 of the Twitter Group members (approx 73) according to credible claims.
Up 0.4% over the month.
I personally know of another 1.4% with other LTH's
So that leaves only ~ 25.5% of all shares being held elsewhere in the wild (LTHs or otherwise)
An average of 916k shares/day (0.16% of all) were traded through the month.
At which rate it would take approx 22 weeks to churn just 10% of shares. Which may suggest that many more are tightly held.
Declarations in the Twitter Group suggest they account for only ~14% of buys during the month.
Friday's dealing code changes seem to have caused a little problem searching for UPL at the London Stock Exchange site.
Go direct with this link
https://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/prices-and-markets/stocks/summary/company-summary/JE00BJXN4P16JEGBXSSQ3.html?lang=en
or search by sedol/isin
ISIN: JE00BJXN4P16
SEDOL: BJXN4P1
It's now the final 2 weeks of the 90-day period, since offer of award, for the partners to execute & actually be awarded the licence.
(the process allows for a 10-day grace period)
A surprising number of discoveries & prospects packed into those UKCS Inner Moray Firth blocks.
IMF South: Dunrobin & Golspie (208 MMboe prospective recoverable, =~1.2TCF)
IMF North : Knockinnon & ForseChannel (12 MMbbl prospective recoverable)
Plus Alpha, Whaligoe, Camster & CamsterSouth
https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/UPL/upland-resources-ltd-award-of-uk-31st-offshore-licensing-round-acreage-9zuagc9u1c5hhmu.html
Perhaps a CPR will be forthcoming.
You're welcome Serif. Sometimes writing it out helps to refresh my memory. :o)
The licence obligations includes reprocessing the existing 2D seismic. Also to shoot 300km of new 2D seismic. As the obligations are worked, UPL receive back portions of the $1m deposit they paid earlier this year.
The existing seismic lines happen to be shown in one of the illustrations in this tweet.
https://twitter.com/_amnesic/status/1140159375723679744
I imagine the 300km new shoot will go quite far in covering the large leads towards the west as well as missing/poor seismic on the other leads. Scale shown in this one https://twitter.com/_amnesic/status/1145255614571896832
Yes. That's my understanding, collated from snippets over a wide variety of sources. Geophysical work can commence when the "prospecting permit" is fully effective.
https://snag.gy/aZ47C1.jpg
For the prosepcting permit to be fully effective, the "licence" has to be written into the law. The draft is approved, so print should be soon.
UPL have said from 30-Jun they're allowed to actively market the prospects to farm-in partners.
http://uplandres.com/saouaf-licence-signing-completed/
...but again, it seems to follow that no deal can be concluded until UPL's licence is in law. Gazette published twice a week.
Obligation timeframes start from that moment too. So we have up to 2 years to fulfil obligations satisfactorily. When we have, we can convert to "exploration permit", the "next phase", which allows for drilling.
Hi Serif
That presentation was from the AGM (I attended). At that time, the formal award of the prospecting authorisation was immenend (granted 2 weeks later, 24-Dec).
The BoD also mentioned the CPR had also been commissioned and that was delivered at year end (31-Dec). http://uplandres.com/pdfs/Upland_Resources_Limited_Supplementary_Prospectus_Saouaf_Licence_3.pdf
It was said that the award of the prospecting authrosiation would also give UPL access to the full data for the block. Potentially, additional data would lead to review work to validate assessments/priorities made thus far.
It was also said, then, that seismic work would be planned. The prospecting authorisation allowed UPL to undertake further research work on the block, but not groundwork, including shooting seismic or drilling. That requires the full prospecting permit, which has been working its way through the gov process ever since. Formal signings took place recently.
https://twitter.com/_amnesic/status/1145266860050587648?s=20
It takes effect as soon as the permit is enshrined in law by publishing through the official gazette. Draft law approved 10 days ago, so could be any day now.
https://twitter.com/_amnesic/status/1152666736287789058?s=20
UPL may have been reprocessing existing seismic already. Last December, a "rough" timeframe for shooting new seismic was aiming for this summer. Planning and preparation for that may have already taken place.
Since the award in December, UPL mention receiving severeal unsolicited expressions of interest from "several companies, including major international and national oil & gas companies". Since the signings of 28-June, UPL have been able to actively market interest in the block to potential farminees.
http://uplandres.com/saouaf-licence-signing-completed/
The effort UPL put towards securing farm-in deal(s) may or may not have been planned for (to meet the level of interest received), and therefore may or may not have delayed the seismic shoot planning work a little accordingly. We'll have to see, but securing good farm-in partner is probably priority. Another potential slight diversion, may relate to ETAP asking UPL to onsider farming in to some producing assets
http://uplandres.com/corporate-update/
https://twitter.com/_amnesic/status/1148640692459266054?s=20
I've posted plenty more research leads on the board below.
Update for end of July
51.8% with UPL Formally Named Holders, including...
6.5% with BoD
40.7% with Cornerstone Investors (Tune + NZ + Optiva)
22.3% is now held across 41 of 74 members in the Twitter Group according to credible claims.
(Down 0.1% over July. New group purchases negated by removal of 1 holder who's MIA too long)
I personally know of another 1.4% with other LTH's
Claims volunteered on this board account for near 2% (reliability of this is less certain, given infrequency of such posts and potential for duplicate counting.
So that leaves only ~ 22.5% to 24.5% of all shares unaccounted for (free, in the wild)
An average of 1.17m shares /day (0.2% of all) were traded through July
At which rate it would take approx 4 months to churn 10% of shares. Which may suggest that many more are tightly held.
Twitter Group declarations account for ~13% of buys in month.
(I maintain an unoffical register on ongoing basis based on holdings/purchases that regulars mention publicly in Twitter Group and here or to me privately/confidentially. If I have reason to doubt, I ignore. On rare occasions of contradictory declarations being made over time I choose lower or remove altogether. I remove entries of those who have fallen out of communication for some time as assumed sold. Only first-hand declarations of personal holdings are included - not second-hand friends/family holdings - to avoid duplicated inclusions)
Just a thought...
In the 23rd April RNS we saw the following: "(ETAP), the Tunisian national oil company and our partner in the Saouaf Licence, has asked Upland to look at farming-in to specific, producing Tunisian oil fields"
That was 1 week before the next Tunisia O&G bid round was due to open and that round closes today (31-Jul)
It occurred to me that there is the possibility that UPLmay not have been the only company to be asked this. If so, perhaps ETAP may have invited a number of companies to bid for the production concession and to do so within the same timescales as the main bid round.
Previously, we have seen announcements of winning bids arrive the day after a round closes.
As RNS or CPR
https://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-detail/UPL/13919564.html
"Blackwatch estimates that these could hold 1.961 TCF of mean, unrisked, recoverable gas resource plus 42 MMbbl of mean, unrisked, recoverable oil resource"
Tesla Club Tunisia tweeted about a wall socket near the A1 highway, which got me and my calculator a thinking....
Electricity generated at B, C & D CCGT plants at Sousse.
20km of the A1 highway passes over #UPL's #Saouaf block at Enfidha. With its ~2TCF of natural gas, these power plants could run at max capacity for 33 years.
Plus oil for ~66 billion km of conventional engine motoring.
https://twitter.com/_amnesic/status/1154657192932515841?s=20
In a post on 8-Jul, I mentioned:
- - - - -
ENI look very likely as a partner somewhere down the line. They're heavily into Tunisia onshore, involved in nearly a quarter of concessions with ETAP.
http://www.etap.com.tn/index.php?id=1160&lg=3
ENI - 53 billion Euro market cap, operating in 67 countries
https://www.eni.com/en_IT/company/international-presence.page
Perenco (possibly via Serept subsidiary) may also feature. A large Anglo-French company operating next-door - 3 mature producing fields - possibly the ones we've been asked to farm-in to (match well to info given by SS in interview/RNS)
- - - - -
Do we have any other links that may provide some insight?
One of UPL's Geophysical Advisors is Italian, speaks French & English and has 22 years experience with ENI, Agip, Medoilgas ==> https://snag.gy/1SJ5kl.jpg
He also published a research paper regarding Malta offshore Area 4, considering the wider region, which references charging from source rock also relevant to Saouaf's source rock (Bahloul and Lower Fahdene) ==> https://snag.gy/Y0XQEU.jpg
Area 4 was acquired by Malta OIl & Gas (a subsidiary of MedOilGas).
Medoilgas also held 25% interest in an onshore Tunisia license for the Medjerda block (immediately north of El Fahs).
The Doc has shown interest in the El Fahs region for years ==> https://snag.gy/rZ3bUM.jpg
The El Fahs block no longer exists, but portions of the block are now the Jougar & Errend blocks. Neither are licensed blocks, neither are listed as open blocks. But the terms of our Saouaf licence apparently offer potential to extend acreage ==> https://snag.gy/odeTYj.jpg
UPL' Geological & Operations advisor was the signatory of the previous El Fahs block ==>
https://twitter.com/_amnesic/status/1117765447452172289?s=20
= = = = =
UPL 2018 AGM Presentation: http://uplandres.com/pdfs/Upland_AGM_Presentation_10_12_2018_v2_copy.pdf
Malta Area 4 Research paper ==> https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236972500_Exploration_Potential_in_Area_4_-_Offshore_Malta
The 1st draft of Tunisia's new Hydrocarbon Code will be available next month. It anticipates exploration for shale gas by introducing provisions for unconventional resources.
This is likely to further enhance recovery potential for #UPL's 2TCF resources in the #Saouaf block.
Article images in tweet ==> https://twitter.com/_amnesic/status/1153639712571166721?s=20
Confirmation tweet from the company
https://twitter.com/Uplandtweets/status/1153537193467613185?s=20
Setback for renewables in Tunisia. Companies pull out of tendering for 500MW solar power projects
https://www.africaintelligence.com/mce/business-circles/2019/07/18/total-eren-and-edf-drop-out-of-giant-solar-energy-project
https://www.upstreamonline.com/hardcopy/1824838/shell-changes-its-plans-for-rosmari-marjoram
Interesting move by Shell in offshore Sarawak gas field development (SK318): Avoiding costs associated with massive offshore platforms by processing onshore instead, with wellheads tied back ~150km to onshore plants (probably Miri)
Draft law approved for the agreement related to @Uplandtweets's Saouaf hydrocarbons prospecting license
??
https://twitter.com/_amnesic/status/1152666736287789058