The biggest bit of news - for my money - was this announcement by ROC that they were buying an option on buying into the Beetaloo basin.
ROC will pay $50k down for an option, excersisable by mid-June to pay exploration costs to earn 87.5% of the Beetaloo Basin, with Sweetpea retaining a 5% royalty.
Where the hell is the Beetaloo, I hear you ask ... people at the PESA farmin seminar certainly had the question on their lips.
The Beetaloo is a sub-basin within the Proterozoic Macarthur Basin, onshore in the northern half of the Northern Territory.
The bad news is that these are old rocks, but the good news is that the source rocks are world-class, and highly saline water shows evidence of seal integrity being maintained. They also have oil shows, indicating a working petroleum system.
The basin has very sparse well control and seismic coverage, but they have some targets picked out ... the lack of well control and volcantic activity during the Cambrian may make interpreting seismic fun however.
But it's play money for ROC, and $4m down gets them control of a major basin, and old rocks can be good rocks - the 1.2 TCF Kovykta field in East Siberia is a pre-Cambrian fluvio-deltaic system, and thats enough gas to get you a seat at the table with Conco-Phillips with their gas development plans.
Ian Whitchurch
ROC Price at posting:
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