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Talking of asset sales CB will be at the Indaba next week, talking turkey with much bigger fish, and that should create some competitive tension between various parties who will want to get their hand on GLR’s assets. Such tensions could easily lead to a bid for the whole company whilst it is trading at such a low base imo.
Easy to see MILA getting swallowed by Liontown here in due course following today’s news and an absolute bargain whilst it trades at such a discount to the recent issue price in November’s fund raising. It just needs some PR to get things moving imo.
It’s over six weeks now since they put project III in the shop window at that Turkish oil and gas conference. I think it’s reasonable to assume that any interested parties who knocked on Paul Haywood’s door after that will by now have had sight of a draft CPR. If NDA’s have been signed between the parties that might explain the radio silence until heads of terms have been agreed but the recent extended high level visit by senior Georgian politicians and staff to China is telling a story is it not?
Then take a look at the top four pictures in Block’s photo gallery: https://www.blockenergy.co.uk/media/gallery/ where you can see PH with senior management of CNPC’s drilling team. Was he saying ‘Come and get us’ or what?
Yes it all seems to part of a plan Bobby with the Chinese already in country but seemingly in the wrong place judging by this article from CNPC: https://news.cnpc.com.cn/system/2023/04/25/030099945.shtml
Translation: Signing a 100-million-yuan engineering service contract to open a new market for Western Drilling in Georgia
China Petroleum News Center
Publication date: 2023-04-25 10:47
News from China Petroleum Network (Special Correspondent Niu Yun, Correspondent Wu Rongrong) On April 17, after more than a year of follow-up research and promotion, Western Drilling officially signed a RMB 100 million contract for drilling, logging, and cementing engineering services in Georgia. This is the first time that Western Drilling has entered the Georgian market in West Asia.
Georgia has a stable social environment, broad prospects for the oil and gas market, and promising economic benefits from the project. This project is located in Block V in the Kutaisi area. Western Drilling is responsible for drilling, logging, directional, cementing, coring, simple pressure control, mid-course testing and other services. The first well E-CH-FN1 is designed as a three-split directional well. , the design well depth is 4580 meters.
In April 2022, Western Drilling received a bidding invitation letter from Georgia's Western Gulf Petroleum Engineering Co., Ltd. and was invited to participate in the bidding for engineering and technical services in Block V in the Kutaisi region. Western Drilling attaches great importance to this, and has traveled to and from Beijing many times, organized specialists to conduct on-site inspections of oil fields in Georgia, and repeatedly communicated and negotiated with the senior management of Western Gulf Company to promote business progress and cooperation at multiple levels. For more than a year, multiple parties have repeatedly discussed and communicated, and finally achieved the expected goals and successfully signed the contract, creating new profit growth points for the high-quality development of PetroChina's overseas business.
There is little well geology and actual drilling data in Block V in the Kutaisi area, and the project is adjacent to a nature reserve. There are residential areas, high-voltage lines, railways, etc. around the well site, making it an environmentally sensitive area. The designed trajectory of the first well is a bypass well. The upper strata are loose and trajectory control is difficult. In view of the construction difficulties, the specialized units of Western Drilling cooperated efficiently, participated in technical management with a highly responsible attitude, implemented the concept of green and environmentally friendly drilling, and studied countermeasures for various difficulties and risks in advance. On the premise of ensuring safety, we continued to provide high-quality services. Shape the brand image of Western Drilling.
These articles explain why Block has put a focus on Carbon capture:
hTTps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-22/why-carbon-capture-is-big-oil-s-favorite-solution-for-climate-change?leadSource=uverify%20wall
hTTps://www.iea.org/reports/the-role-of-ccus-in-low-carbon-power-systems/why-carbon-capture-technologies-are-important
hTTps://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/10/09/carbon-capture-oil-gas/
In other words they are ticking all the right boxes to secure a partnership with an oil major.
Although in the spirit of concluding a trade deal with China and delivering the full potential of the nation’s oil and gas resources I would certainly not rule out a draft CPR being shared with the Chinese counterparties.
The first people to see the CPR will be the regulatory bodies in Georgia, namely the SAOG and the GOGC. They will wish to take political soundings prior to passing any comment, but that’s not been possible this week as all the political heavy weights have been out in China or at the WEF gathering in Davos. The delegation visiting China are not returning until Saturday, so my hunch is that the document will be cleared for publication by the middle of next week.
Looking ever more likely now imo: https://agenda.ge/en/news/2024/138?fbclid=IwAR3p0DaEYfHm4Cs2FAAFRwz2SaB1frT6f_sw9lB6U6nAFQtEzmKwIDQYjvM_aem_AXmmIZm2YvLIF76DJprou4lbMQFMccWXmE-uKuus4B2LNyNyVIoVfMxQjcD-SwEusmU
It certainly ticks a lot of boxes for the major E&P companies and their investors who have adopted ESG criteria in their reporting, and should be seen as an essential precursor to the CPR. That should now follow shortly imo.
As you like to quote from other boards Sarah chew on this from Advfn: “ Whilst we wait for news it is worth looking at this section of Georgia Oil and Gas Ltd’s website: hTTps://georgiaoilandgas.ge/projects/ which seems to have been the only part which has recently been updated. Focus on the Martkopi Terrace Prospect and Martkopi deep and then page down to the 2024 work plan where the deepening of well Martkopi-10 and reaching the crest of Middle Eocene Martkopi Terrace prospect is the key priority. This means that through the MOU with GOGC and GOG Ltd we are going to see some drilling action to target the deep gas regardless of what block achieves with its proposed farmout of project III.
This reinforces my view that this is going to be the year that BLOE comes good for its patient investors. Worst case scenario is that we have to wait for GOG to finish drilling Martkopi Terrace in order to secure a much bigger name for the development of the gas in Project III, but it could well come sooner than that given CNPC’s presence in Georgia.”
As you mentioned side issues here’s another concerning Block’s largest institutional investor: https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/POLX/comment-re-share-purchase-koo3s2jirk6d9uj.html Maybe they are building a warchest for what’s to come here?
Out of 15 trades today only four were sells, so we should have closed up today if it wasn’t for the market makers reducing the bid to free up some stock. Expect volumes to increase significantly next week.
I’ve no need to report Chesh Sarah, as what he says is clearly with tongue in cheek. There are now seven buys versus 4 sells and two of the latter might well be the outcome of stop loss orders when the market makers dropped the bid, as they often do when they need to free up stock ahead of news. It’s no big deal either way, but next week should be interesting to say the least.