playing to their strengths

Playing To Their Strengths: WHL’s
Phenomenal Year

THE ACQUISITION of a few exploration blocks
in the Seychelles has started one Perth based
oil and gas microcap on their way to a drilling
campaign in the Exmouth sub-basin that is the
envy of their peers.
WHL Energy was less than a year ago,
a company with not a lot going for it. No
full-time staff, no clear direction as to what
sort of energy company it was and assets that
included some windfarms in the UK.
Enter Steve Noske, an engineer for the past
27 years with companies Woodside, Shell and
Mitsui E&P. He saw the struggling microcap
could be turned around, so he and John
Chandler (a lecturer in petroleum and mineral
law at UWA) together with David Rowbottam
(former managing director of Exoma) and
Trevor Benson (a highly regarded investment
banker) formed a board of directors and began
divesting as many assets as they could.
Today WHL is a dedicated oil and gas
company with an experienced corporate and
technical team and acreage in the Seychelles
and Australia.
On the back of their Seychelle’s acreage
alone, WHL has grown to being worth a
staggering $70 million, from a $5 million market
cap in July 2010. “Seychelles was considered by
the industry as having interesting geology but
uncertain prospectivity due to poor seismic
data quality and the uncertainty of a petroleum
system,” Mr Noske said.
“We have found the Seychelles government
to be very supportive, they have taken a 5%
share in our company. When we first got
there in 2010, the petroleum data consisted
of a paper map from the 1980s. Now we have
acquired over 7,000km of 2D seismic, have 3D
seismic planned for 2012. We are committed to
exploration in the region,” he said.
“Our unrisked net mean reserves (P50) are
up to 3.5 billion barrels and we have 21,426
square kilometres of acreage granted - we are
in a good position.”
Steve says the Seychelles is a great place to
work and the exploration potential is huge.
“Seychelles is now on the radar of the super
majors in the exploration industry, since the
advances in seismic data quality, its leads have
the potential to be game changers for the
region.”
“The east of Africa is enjoying a renaissance
for oil and gas exploration, we are fortunate
enough to have some very prospective offshore
acreage and we own 100% of that resource. In
2012 we will be looking out for interesting
West African deals to add to our portfolio,
along with developing resources that have
clear timetables for production.”

http://www.whlenergy.com.au/IRM/Company/ShowPage.aspx/PDFs/1243-29640966/OilGasAustraliaWHL