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Zengas' impressive detective work strongly suggest the assets they have been awarded are collectively known as the DEWA Complex. What more can you tell us about these fields Oiltdr?

Please don't starting spamming JR - we don't want all the really good voices here getting lost in drivel

Hi Paul,

a failure in Norway for sure, however what if one of those wells had come in big style, then we'd be saying what a genius Nick I is? Equinor, DNO and other big players were invested in these Norwegian exploration wells also, and saw the upside.

The best use of that £45m was, it is turning out, establishing a presence in Malayisa and buying a majority stake in Kertang. This may end happily for you yet.

Malcy's take on things:

"So pick the bones out of those two announcements this morning as Longboat, remarkably quickly after the recent news that Norway was proving to be somewhat less than profitable, and that its South East Asia portfolio was the future. The way that it has been done is pleasing, the company could not find any reason to stay in Norway and if they had stayed in what was a deteriorating situation there was no guaranty that they could have got out so cleanly.

Longboat has sold its 50.1% interest in the JAPEX JV for $2.5m in cash but importantly taking with it the share of the debt which adds $8.5m to the total making an $11m exit purse. As a result in one fell swoop the board has wiped the slate clean in Norway and is now preparing for life as a South East Asia focused hydrocarbon play.

And what now, well the good news is that there are the makings of a pretty handy portfolio of assets tucked away under the watchful eye of James Menzies who is somewhat of a legend in the area and has the optionality to make something really rather good out of what he starts with.

The jewel in the crown is obviously Block 2A where they have a 52.5% operated interest in this offshore Sarawak located area in eastern Malaysia and in which the ‘giant Kertang prospect’ is located. And this is indeed a jewel, we are told that ‘multiple large companies have approached Longboat’ with interest, accordingly a farm-out process will take place in H2 2024.

In addition to this, Longboat has also potentially an interest in shallow water Sarawak ‘containing several material, undeveloped gas fields capable of near-term development’. These, added to 2A are really excellent starting blocks for the company and as they have said, an important addition to the Asian portfolio.

The speed with which Longboat has got to grips with the Norwegian problem, cut a deal to sell and move forward has been very impressive. Fortunate maybe, in having 2A and Mr Menzies to call upon but I can’t think of anything or anyone better to lead the company going forward.

I have said twice now that investors should not hang around in reassessing and deciding to invest in what we should call ‘New Longboat’, with a CPR imminent I have a feeling that there is lots of upside here and maybe quite quickly too. "

Thanks for sharing Oiltdr - much appreciated.

(and kudos to Zengas, you had this pretty much worked out a couple of weeks ago)

The Norway nightmare is over, can't say I'm gonna miss that albatross Helge too much.

Us long term holders are now back in play!

Lol Ash! Now, cheer up mate, time to leave your half empty glass in Norway and reread what Oiltdr just wrote about the DRO award...

( when I say 'their knowledge' I mean LBE's knowledge, not the poster's!)

If the below poster is accurate in what they are saying, then their knowledge of the provisional award may have driven this decision to cut Norway.

Very interesting Oiltdr - tell us more!

I noticed a poster on the board copied a snippet of JAPEX's RNS, which did suggest that this move to Malaysia was not an inevitable thing, but the result of the Nick I and James Menzies making a big decision on where to fully focus. One gets the impression they could have carried on in Norway, but just decided that in all regards Malaysia is a better bet, so chose to cut loose.

Wow guys, big news. Name change to Topaz Energy soon?

On the one hand it feels like ... what a waste of time the last four years adventure in Norway have been. On the other hand, everything Helge ever touched in Norway just seem to drive the share price further down. There seemed to be no investor appetite for the Norwegian adventure, no matter how much Helge talked it up. Now we know why.

So will this decisive move signal a change in general investor sentiment? It should do. And for all the reasons that have been talked about here by others.

Should we have got more for our Norwegian assets? Probably. But everything they owned in Norway required serious funds to progress.

Name change soon to Topaz Energy anyone?

Surely any theoretical raise would have taken place a month or two earlier, at around 20p, because the issues highlighted in the recent RNS had already been highlighted in the Annual Accounts Directors report back then.

Strange and damaging tactic by the company if not.

Zebbo I believe the AGM will be on 27th June

I'm beginning to believe that the RNS is basically putting us on notice that they are giving up on Norway and gonna refocus solely on Malaysia. They've realised that with the Malaysian DSOs and everything, Malaysia is just gonna make them more money, faster, and with less mouths to feed. And then with the Kertang opportunity on top of that it's just a no-brainer.

Hard for the likes of HH and the other old timers to accept this reality, and with so many sunk costs in Norway. But he's gone now.

Perhaps JC is sticking around till August to get a sale of the JV finalised?

All speculation but I'm beginning to accept that Norway might soon be over for Longboat, and perhaps for the best, when there are warmer, clearer, and more bountiful waters elsewhere.

Following the Japex deal announcement Longboat said that sale of Kveikje had been in motion, but that the company had ended that sales process. They were confident then that their funding worry days were over and that they could negotiate from a "position of strength". That turned out to be a laughably overconfident and wrong assumption. No wonder heads have rolled. Longboat Norway are back in the do-do, less than 12 months after announcing they were in a position of strength. Hard to believe.

But the point is - surely a sale of Kveikje would be enough to settle the funding issues for the JV? If so, would or how might that affect the shortfall in the PLC?

From Malcy earlier today:

"Things have moved on swiftly at Longboat and after a couple of long conversations with the Executive Chairman-elect James Menzies I can fairly confidentially predict that things are going to change at Longboat. The realisation that has dawned over the company in recent months that progress in Norway was not a nailed-on certainty and that despite the new partnership, unlikely to come without serious setbacks.

In recent years, probably even months, the realisation that a really exciting business could be created in South East Asia and under the auspices of James Menzies who has very decent form in the area, has dawned on the board at Longboat. So this announcement is pretty much step one in the process as the new board is announced and the downsizing of the Norway portfolio underway.

The company has been in the process of building the SE Asia portfolio already and if it hadn’t been for the Norway problems then I suspect Mr Menzies would have a bit more already. But the first asset that he has bought for the company has been something of a success already as Longboat, at the APAC Energy Assembly in Singapore has been awarded the ‘New entrant of the year award’ for the acquisition of the 2A block offshore Sarawak, Malaysia something that James Menzies is very proud of.

I can go into more detail at a later stage as it is laden with excitement and I reckon that they have been awarded, at no cost, the hottest block in the area, hence the award. With plenty more to come there is something to keep an eye on and a number of exciting opportunities which are made for the E&P sector and companies of Longboat’s size. Add to that the appointment of industry legend Geraldine Murphy to the board and the resurrection of Longboat is much closer than I had expected it to be."

It was interesting to see the RNS from 10 June 2021 which detailed the previous (and only) fund raise, where they. raised £35m at 75p. HH bought 500,000 shares at 75p, Nick I 160,000, Jon C 200,000, Graham S 200,000.

I expect they are still gonna do all they can to avoid diluting their 2021 purchases to oblivion. I think they also put money in at £1 float price...

it seems hard to believe that less than 12 months after helge announced the completion of this "transformational" jv with japex that it has already turned to ****. transformational all right, just not in the way we were expecting...

but really? can it really all be brought crashing to earth already, due to the "initial small acquisition"? when they announced that on 3rd july last year, they stated that combined net current production from the two fields was 310bopd, and they forecast that to double in 2024. (= 620bopd) . (forecasts of 1000bopd came later remember, was not in the original forecasts released).

according to the rns on 29th may last week, the company estimates average production between 575- 625 bopd for 2024. so v close to the originally announced forecast.

of course we hear that capex costs increased. but wtf guys, is this really how brittle the jv was all along, that this minor (and not unheard of) issue is going to sink the whole f'ing boat? crikey..

so all these reductions, and layoffs, the "three of us left are gonna do the finances from now on, even though we arent finance experts, but we can't do much worse can we haha" is this meant to reassure japex, that they are gonna try and cut down the excessive costs, and stop acting like jokers.

it beggars belief guys, it really does!

Lol Ash. I think the difference is now, that Longboat finally have someone (JAPEX) behind them. Let's see what they come up with.

In the meantime, I noted Malcy has been scracthing his head about the recent management changes:

"As I write I am waiting to talk to Longboat management about a series of management changes which leave me somewhat unconvinced. The company has a large number of excellent directors but are they all in the right place? As a former Faroe fan I cannot understand why Helge has left the management team, I am known to be a huge fan of James Menzies so that area is in excellent hands but I guess better folk than me will tell me one day… I must be missing something, it wouldn’t be the first time."

Who else is wondering whether HH has been pressured to move aside by some large shareholders. Due to shareholder value destruction / lack of progress.

Or is it just that he has reached retirement age.

I noted our new CEO shelled out about 170k for shares at 75p a share, back when they raised 35m for the Norway drilling deals.

Did you sell out Paul? I remember you saying a couple of years ago that you held quite a chunk? As did mozzabezza, not heard from him for a while either..

I'm still here, in from 70p in 2020, have averaged down quite a bit since then.

I'm comfortable waiting, believing they've finally got themselves in the position to do well from here.

Share price performance has been disappointing for sure, but I don't put all the blame on the company. I believe the pandemic changed the market completely. Pretty much all deals where shelved initially, there was hardly anyone wanting to sell when the oil price was so low/unstable, not in Norway anyway. Then PE leveraged cheap money massively, which skewed the market dynamics as the market for M&A began to come back. The share price has not recovered from the II sell down, I guess it's whether one sees that as a buying opportunity. But if you don't believe in the management, as you clearly don't, then I guess you see no upside from here.