best explorer

Sorry if it's a repost...

Petroleum companies recognised in resources awards
Steve Rotherham
Friday, November 30, 2007

IN AN awards presentation on Wednesday night, investment magazine RESOURCESTOCKS named Innamincka Petroleum as Best Explorer of the year for its Flax-Juniper find and recognised Queensland Gas Company as one of Australia's leading resources producers.

While Innamincka's Flax-1 was drilled in January 2004, and Juniper-1 was drilled in October that year, it was only in the last few months that Innamincka's Flax East-1 well confirmed that the two fields were connected by an oil-saturated saddle.

The company's shares took off, jumping 283%, on the back of a forecast for an initial production target of 1000 barrels of oil per day by mid-2008.

The company (75% owner of Flax-Juniper) said the joint venture had drilled eight wells within the field area and all had encountered oil-saturated sandstones.

Seoul City Gas Australia Pty Ltd (SCGAU) purchased a 25% interest in the successful Cooper Basin tenement for $7 million in 2006 after Innamincka had acquired its 75% from Vernon Faulconer Australia for $12 million.

The purchase has become an extremely wise one on the strength of the latest discovery.
The estimated lowest known oil level (LKO) for the discovery was 120 million barrels of oil.
Innamincka also mentioned further potential both down structure from the new LKO and by other strategically higher intervals in the Patchawarra and Toolachee formations.

The company holds an interest in three exploration permits covering about 4400sq.km of core Cooper Basin acreage.

RESOURCESTOCKS said that its Best Explorer award was one of the key categories in its annual awards.

"Exploration success invariably translates into future economic success," editor Ron Berryman wrote.

"The last two winners of this category have been Woodside for its Pluto liquefied gas discovery and Cudeco, the company which gained fame for its announcement of the 1250m long Las Minerale copper/cobalt/gold deposit in Queensland. Both hard acts to follow."

This year's runners-up were Western Australian gold miner Ramelius Resources and BHP Billiton for its Thebe-1 gas discovery in WA's Exmouth Plateau region.

Thebe-1 exploration confirmed a gas column of about 73m in the Exmouth Plateau of the Carnarvon Basin about 300km off the northwest coast of Western Australia, just north of the Scarborough and Jupiter gas fields, in which BHP also has stakes. BHP Billiton holds a 100% interest in Thebe.

In other categories, Queensland Gas Company was third in the Best Producer of the Year award, coming behind miners Paladin Resources and Territory Resources.

As RESOURCESTOCKS noted, coal seam methane Queensland Gas Company was not even a gas producer two years ago, but now it supplies about 15% of Queensland's gas market with the opportunity to increase market share to more than 30%.

The company has two operating areas – Berwyndale South and Kenya-Argyle – within south Queensland's Walloon coal fairway and has plans to treble its output by 2009.

QGC also plans to develop a profitable water business based on the large volumes of water produced with coal seam gas and has contracts in place for more than 850 petajoules of gas to be delivered over the next 20 years.

In its first full year of production, QGC reported an operating profit of $23.8 million to June 2007, which included gas sales of 11.5PJ for $27 million – up from $1.2 million for the previous financial year when production was 6PJ.

"QGC's market capitalisation of more than $1 billion is testament to its position in the Australian energy marketplace," Berryman wrote.

QGC managing director Richard Cottee was also placed third in the executive of the year category.

PetroleumNews.net applauds the recognition given to the coal seam methane producer and its head, but notes that there is little to separate QGC and its competitor Arrow Energy or Cottee and Arrow managing director Nick Davies. Both CSM companies have been very successful and are poised for further strong growth, and both MDs are leaders in their field.

The Best of the Best awards are published in the December issue of RESOURCESTOCKS.