Copied from the Advfn board28 Dec 2023 00:26
“OK I’ve been deep into my research this evening and am now convinced that Block are walking with giants here. Let’s start with this statement from the latest RNS:
“Growing industry interest in Georgia is also spurring an increase in exploration activity. OMV is planning to acquire 3D seismic in the Black Sea, and China's commitment to the country has been underlined by the presence of a private Chinese firm using services supplied by CNPC, the Chinese state-owned integrated energy group, in an onshore location between the Black Sea and Block's Project III.
CNPC has been contracted to deliver a firm work programme comprising two deep wells, using a modern rig and a full suite of integrated services. Positive results from this work programme would have an instant read-through to the value of Project III, which stands to benefit from access to a drilling rig and integrated services capable of drilling deep directional wells promising to reduce mobilisation and demobilisation time and costs”.
Now what’s not apparent from the version of the RNS on Advfn is that if you check the version on the LSE site you will see that it contains pictures of Paul Haywood standing next to the CNPC senior management at their Georgian well site.That would not have happened unless there had already been a significant amount of interaction between the two companies.
Now let’s have a look at just how big CNPC are. This article is a good starting point: hTTps://factsanddetails.com/china/cat13/sub85/item319.html and it contains this statement:” China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is China’s largest oil producer and oil company, producing about two thirds of China’s crude oil. Founded in 1988 and headquartered in Beijing, it is the world’s largest oil producer by revenue and production volume. The company was No. 4 on the Fortune Global 500 list with $284 billion in revenue in 2021 and has about 432,000 employees. PetroChina is the listed arm of state-owned CNPC. It was created in 1999 by the Chinese government to secure more oil for that nation's booming economy. The Chinese government owns 86 percent of its stock and China uses nearly every drop of oil PetroChina secures domestically. [Source: AP, Investopedia]”
So let’s return to the RNS now and this statement:” Following continued development during 2023, Project III was declared a gas resource of strategic importance by the State of Georgia, and Block has concluded it is now ready to support a farm-out at the asset level”. A farmout of project III to CNPC or its subsidiary in Georgia would attract massive worldwide publicity and the volume of stock traded here would just go through the roof. Now if the first well to be drilled by the CNPC is successful it’s easy to see why little old Block Energy with its tiny market cap could soon be swallowed by a giant.”