The greatest value-adding moments for oil exploration companies...

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The greatest value-adding moments for oil exploration companies come via the drill bit. The discovery of large volumes of oil or gas with clear commercial potential.The latest ASX Junior to succeed like this is Carnarvon Petroleum (ASX: CVN), growing to a ¾ $billion market cap through a 20% interest in the Dorado oil discovery in July.The next ASX Junior testing a big offshore oil play will be PCL with the September spud of Cormorant-1 in 545m of water, in one of its two huge blocks offshore Namibia. The drillship is already in-country and preparing for the well.Consider these metrics for PCL’s two Namibian projects: PCL has 20% free-carried with no cost exposure to Cormorant-1 in PEL 37. PCL will receive a further cash payment of A$ 7.3 million on spud of the well. Wood MacKenzie ranks Cormorant-1 as one of the World’s 20 most watched wells of 2018. The project operator is Tullow Oil, one of the most successful oil explorers in Africa. The Cormorant Prospect has potential for 124 million barrels* of recoverable oil. Cormorant is one of four large prospects mapped in a cluster on 3D seismic, all within PCL’s block PEL 37 and with collective potential for 915 million barrels* of recoverable oil. Just a few months ago, oil giant ExxonMobil took a 40% stake in the block right next door. PCL with 75% and operatorship was awarded another huge block, PEL 87, in Namibia earlier this year. Oil majors Shell and Total have already farmed-in directly on-trend to PEL 87. PCL’s mapping is showing more giant-scale potential oil traps in PEL 87. Good science and smart deals got PCL into such a material position in Namibia, now a global oil industry hotspot. At a market cap of circa A$31million, with a fully cost-carried 20% interest in the well plus A$7.3 million in cash coming in at spud, PCL has tremendous leverage to one of the most exciting oil plays in the world.