The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
Https://www.rt.com/africa/592558-egypt-dedollarization-trade-brics/
How many times are we going to go over this issue of Buys and Sells? Every trade is BOTH a buy and a sell, otherwise it wouldn't take place. But the broker, or exchange classify it EITHER as a buy or a sell depending on whether the trade price was closer to the bid or ask . So stop wondering why your buy showed up as a sell. You bought close to or at the bid which suggests there are eager sellers around. Is that clear?
where is everybody?
The SP can't go up as long as Newlands are Waha are out there as potential sellers. The Board should consider using the $5.5 million from the sale of 1/3 of South Disouq to launch a Dutch Tender auction for 40 million shares with a minimum price of 8 p and maximum of 12p. That would still leave the $10 million cash warchest unused and would accomplish the following goals:
1. Send a strong signal to the market that the Board and mgmt feel the stock is undervalued
2. Remove the overhang from the selling shareholders
3. Increase the cash flow per share and reserves per share by 20% for all the remaining shareholders
4. Raise the stock price so a potential acquirer will have to pay a premium rather than steal the company for a bargain price
If 1/3 of South Disouq was worth US $5.5 mill (before the Warda discovery) the remaining 2/3 must be worth at least $11 million. Add the $10.6 million in cash and that is more than the the market cap of $21 million so Morocco and West Gharib is entirely free. Delaying the stock buyback until 2H22 is beyond comprehension....unless they are close to a major acquisition. But can they find anything that is more attractive than Morocco and West Gharib for free?
SDX Energy produces oil at MSD-25 well on the Meseda field in West Gharib in Egypt
2022-03-20 23:41:08.410 GMT
(bna IntelliNews)
MENA-focused SDX Energy commenced oil production at the MSD-25 infill
development well on the Meseda field in West Gharib concession in Egypt’s
eastern desert, where it holds a 50% working interest. MSD-25 encountered the
primary top Asl Formation reservoir at 4,109 feet (1,252 metres) measured
depth and reached 4,385ft (1,337m) total depth on 22 February 2022, after
drilling through 84.8ft (25.8m) of good-quality, net oil pay sandstone with an
average porosity of 26.1%. The well has now been successfully perforated,
tied-in to the existing facilities and flow tested, SDX said in a press
release.
MSD-25 is the second well in a fully funded, up to 13-well development
campaign at the Meseda and Rabul oilfields in the West Gharib concession. The
development drilling campaign is aiming to grow gross production to c.3,500 –
4,000 barrels per day (bpd) by early 2023.
The rig is now in the process of moving to the next well in the campaign,
MSD-20, with spudding expected in the next two to three weeks. In order to
take advantage of the high oil price, a second rig will also begin operations
to drill the MSD-24 well and accelerate the development plan, with a spud date
planned for mid-April. SDX and its partner plan to continue to assess the
performance of the rigs over the coming months to determine how long both rigs
will remain operational on the concession.
-0- Mar/20/2022 23:41 GMT
To view this story in Bloomberg click here:
https://blinks.bloomberg.com/news/stories/R92HSKAAIOSL
Positives:
1. No Debt. $9 mill cash
2. Generates >$25 mill CF
3. Fixed price gas contracts. Little commodity risk
4. High Morocco gas prices $11/MCF
5. Ultra low valuation
Negatives:
1. Fixed Price gas contracts. Little commodity upside
2. Low Egypt gas prices
3. High Morocco F&D costs
4. Waha stock overhang. Low liquidity
5. Board and mgmt not willing to buy back stock at ultra low valuations
PRD is "pleased" with their dry hole :
https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/predator_oil_and_gas/news/rns/story/w6pn2gx
Southmead, your expectations are unrealistic and not supported by the facts. Page 10 of the May presentation on the website clearly states that :
1. The exploration licence has been approved by the EGAS but not ratified by the Egyptian Parliament yet.
2. The IY-2 Development well will be drilled in Q3
So it seems to me Hanut won't spud until August at the earliest
There is a difference between what companies put in press releases and what Reserve Engineers book as Proved and Probable (2P) Reserves....not saying that SDX mgmt was misleading in saying that Sobhi was a 24 BCF discovery....that could very well be what they really think they discovered. But that's not what the Independent Reserve Engineers booked in 2020 given the limited production history from one well. And F&D costs are based on booked reserves.
Goldie, my maths is from line 3 of the Reserve table on p.23 of the 2020 Annual Report:
Reserve Discoveries 2.43 MMBOE
https://wp-sdxenergy-2020.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/media/2021/03/18213921/SDX-Energy_2020_AR.pdf
Do your homework before you post....
Shakey. you raise a valid question and the answer lies in the F&D costs. Our 2P Reserves are 11.1 MMBOE or 66.7 BCFE. Our market cap is US $45 million and Enterprise Value is $35 million. So our EV /BOE of reserves is US $3.15 ( 52 c / MCFE). Last year we spent about $25 million and discovered 2.4 MMBOE so our finding costs were about $10/BOE. (They were much higher than $10 in Morocco and lower in Egypt but we know about the higher prices in Morocco) . So if it cost you $10 to find the stuff but you can buy it for $3.15 with no risk why wouldn't you do that all day long? Why wouldn't you at least take 20% of your CF and do it and drill your best prospects with the other 80%? Especially if buying back stock would increase your SP and make it more attractive to use your stock as currency for potential acquisitions? I am all for drilling Hanut and the other SD prospects. But unless we can reduce our F&D costs in Morocco, I would take some of that cash starting in 2022 and initiate a buyback program as long as the stock trades at such a big discount to NAV. Of course we all hope Hanut will be a discovery and that the SP will more than reflect the value but we have to have a backup plan in case it doesn't.
but how do you really feel about it Luck?
The best way to close the gap between the SP and NAV would be for the Board of Directors to say that starting in 2022, they will limit capex to 80 % of CF and use the other 20 % to buy back stock as long as it trades at a significant discount to NAV. How can you justify spending $15 million a yr in Morocco where you generate no FCF when you can buy in your own assets at 50c on the $ ?
Stifel report out today with 52p price target. Got to give them credit for having the courage of their convictions. Most analysts targets are anchored by the stock price and they don't dare show much more than 50% upside (or any downside) regardless of what they really think. They would rather follow the SP up or down and adjust their PT gradually. Got to give Chris Wheaton credit for calling it as he sees it. Hope he is right of course...
If Morningstar is right, River and Mercantile have reduced their holdings from 18.936 mill shs (9.22%) to 15.0 mill shs (7.30%). But one has to be careful as all of these shareholder holdings data bases are remarkably unreliable.
4 May 2021
SDX ENERGY PLC ("SDX", the "Company" or the "Group")
COMMENCEMENT OF DRILLING OPERATIONS IN MOROCCO
SDX Energy Plc (AIM: SDX), the MENA-focused energy company, is pleased to
announce the commencement of the first, three well, phase of its 2021 drilling
campaign in Morocco, which will comprise up to five wells over the year.
Mark Reid, CEO of SDX, commented:
"I am pleased to announce that the Company has commenced its 2021 drilling
activities of up to eleven wells across our portfolio of assets with the spud
of the OYF-3 appraisal/development well in Morocco. This is the first of three
wells to be drilled in the coming months with a further two planned for later
in the year. The objective of these wells is to add reserves to allow us to
continue to deliver gas to our customers in line with their contractual
requirements. The commencement of this campaign has been delayed by
approximately one month due to covid-19 related travel restrictions delaying
the mobilisation of equipment and personnel into Morocco. We would
particularly like to thank our partner ONHYM for providing invaluable
assistance in enabling us to obtain the necessary Government authorisations to
mobilise the equipment and people into the country to commence the campaign
last week.
The Company's Egyptian drilling activities are expected to commence in June
with the first of four development wells in West Gharib and the start of our
very exciting two well campaign in South Disouq where the second well, the
Hanut-1X exploration well planned for mid-Q3, will be targeting gross unrisked
mean recoverable volumes of 139bcf with a 33% chance of success.
I look forward to updating the market in the coming months on what is looking
to be a very busy and exciting period of activity."
Moroccan Drilling Campaign
This first phase of the Morocco drilling campaign will consist of three
appraisal/development wells, which management estimates will target a total of
1.3 bcf of P90/1.8 bcf of P50, gross unrisked prospective recoverable
resources, in its operated Gharb Basin acreage in Morocco (SDX: 75% working
interest).
The first well, OYF-3, which spud on 30 April 2021, is targeting the Guebbas
reservoir at approximately 1,160m. The second well, KSR-17, will target the
Hoot reservoir at approximately 1,720m and the third well, KSR-18, is a dual
target well, with the first in the Guebbas reservoir at 1,600m and the second
in the Hoot reservoir at around 1,790m. All three wells are looking to
encounter shallow, biogenic gas accumulations near to the Company's existing
infrastructure, thus enabling tie-ins to be completed quickly and at low cost.
The Company will utilise the drilling rig that is already stacked in its yard
in Morocco, thereby incurring minimal mobilisation cost.
The campaign is expected to complete in July 2021, at which point the Company
will update the market on
been married 34 years and haven't learned to listen to her yet. She also was urging me to buy AAPL from when she got her first ipad but I blew that one also.
and my main regret is I didn't listen to my wife 10 years ago when she was begging me to buy some AMZN to diversify from oil and gas. Hindsight is a wonderful gift that so far eludes me. SDX has been a very poor performer even judged against its industry group but that is history. The only thing that matters now is the current valuation vs the future prospects. The valuation is low. The prospects are good but uncertain as they depend on exploration success at Hanut and the Top Nappe. We will know in the next six months...
" If Hanut doesn't come in and/or the Top Nappe etc doesn't play out in Morocco we are probably in for a world of hurt."
Shakey, you put your finger on it. The main issue with SDX is the high F&D costs and poor recycle ratios that have prevented us from generating FCF in the past three years. A discovery in Hanut would go a long way towards fixing that problem in Egypt since the target is big and the infrastructure is already in place. But the COS is only 30% . A success in the Top Nappe in Morocco would fix only part of the problem there. The targets would get bigger but you still have the lack of infrastructure and limited market to deal with. However, a bigger resource would give us some options that have not been practical to date.
Failure in both would raise serious questions about the sustainability of the current approach. To get a good return on spending $25 million a year we need to be adding 30 to 50 BCF annually net to our interest. If we can't do that consistently, we should reduce spending and return cash to shareholders through a stock buyback (as long as shares trade at a substantial discount to NAV) or dividends. Alternatively, we should sell out to a company that has better prospects for reinvesting our cash flow. The next twelve months will be critical in deciding the future.